Criminology 101
by moeexyz
Summary: Mafia AU. Annie gets her introduction into the crime world, while Jeff tries to keep things running smoothly without Pierce. The last thing he needs is to fall for his sweater-wearing, new drug-dealer.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N - I've started another multi-chapter story, because clearly I hate myself. Also, there's a lot of mentions of drugs and violence. And I apologize for my lame title._

**_Disclaimer:_**_ Community is not mine. Like, at all. Not even a teeny-weeny bit._

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><p><strong>Criminology 101<strong>

Chang whistled a tune to himself as he wiped down the bar-top. It was a Tuesday so the bar had been pretty empty. Chang had closed early for the night, hoping he'd make it home in time to catch Glee. He hated to admit it, but he rather liked that show. Simple pleasures for a simple man.

Through the dirty windows of the bar Chang could faintly see the streetlights shining down. The streets were dark and quiet. A dangerous combination around L Street, considering the people that hung around here, but Chang wasn't afraid of them.

Some said he was all talk, but it took a lot to scare Ben Chang.

The proble as _a lot_ had just walked through the door.

"Bar's closed," Chang called out, before looking up and seeing who it was. Nadir and Barnes, Winger's top two guys.

Chang almost felt the urge to laugh. Winger thought just because he acquiesced Hawthorne, that he knew how to run an operation like this. He was fooling himself. Honestly, he held no power over Chang, and Chang wasn't going to pay him.

Nadir cocked his head curiously at Chang, while Barnes squinted in that Forrest Whitaker way of his.

"Closed a bit early, don't you think?" Abed asked, conversationally. Chang was used to dealng with the lower lackeys in Winger's operation. People like Magnitude and Fat Neil. He'd heard stories about Nadir though.

They said he was emotionless to the point that even Winger was unsettled by him sometimes. He didn't look emotionless now, but then again, they also said he was a big fan of roleplay. He looked like he was going for a Harrison Ford theme tonight.

"Well, it's Tuesday. We're not very busy on -" Chang began.

"Oh, so you _do_ know what day it is," Nadir said, taking a step forward and effortlessly pointing a gun between Chang's eyes. "Then you must know why we're here," He said. He'd dropped the Harisson Ford thing completely now, and stared at him blankly. It _was_ unsettling. His voice held no form of emotion, and his eyes were dead, but also full of life. They scanned over Chang like a computer, taking in every emotion that flitted across his face.

Barnes' eyes bugged out even more, and behind them Chang heard the door open, although he couldn't see who it was behind them.

"I -" Chang began, but Barnes interrupted him. He stepped behind the bar and crushed Chang's back against the wall of bottles.

Everyone who knew anything about the crime underworld, knew who Barnes was. It was rather often that a cop car got pulled down to the neighbourood because of something Barnes did. He'd done time twice, and by the looks of it, it had taught him nothing.

"Mr Winger was happy to let you continue on, pretending you were still relevant, as long as you gave him the cut he asked for. But you haven't payed your cut yet, have you? Mr Winger is very unhappy about that," Barnes said, his voice barely a tone above a threatening whisper.

Over Barnes' shoulder, Chang could see who it was that had come in after them. It was a woman. Dark haired and petit. She was looking at the booths that lined the walls, with a bored expression. Chang had no idea who she was, but by the way she was reacting, she definitely wasn't a lost customer.

Chang wasn't afraid of Barnes or Nadir. Sure enough they were both pointing guns at him from different angles, but he knew that Winger needed him. He wouldn't cut him out just because of some money issues. This was just a scare tactic. And a weak one at that.

Chang spat back in Barnes' face. "I'm not afraid of him. He's not even here. Instead he sent you goons to do his dirty work for him."

The woman – no, girl. She looked too young to count as a woman. She was barely the same age as Barnes. She stepped up next to Nadir, her large blue eyes shinning with ... _something_. The corners of her lips curled up ever so slightly.

"You're gonna wish he was here by the time I'm done with you," She told him confidently.

Barnes lowered his weapon and stepped back, so that now the three of them were walled around Chang, preventing any escape tactics.

"Chang, this is our colleague, Annie Edison." He leaned forward, like he was telling Chang a secret. "But most people know her by her street name."

Chang's eyes windened. He knew who she was. Everyone knew who she was, though there were few still alive who could say they'd actually met her. Most of those people fled before they had the chance to have another run-in.

There were some who spoke about her in her early days, but those guys were usually even more terified than anybody else.

"Psycho," Chang whispered.

The woman – _Psycho_ – grinned at the recognition.

"Here's the deal," Nadir began. He was Wingers concigliere. He ran most of the business parts of things, which made sense. He was a lot less merciful than Winger apparently. The only reason he wasn't in charge was because nobody knew how to handle people the way Winger did. That was the main reason he managed to take over the operation in the first place.

"For every thousand you haven't given us, Miss Edison here will cut off one of yor clammy, little fingers," He said, his voice flat and monotone.

"No! Please! I can give it to you, just give me more time!" Chang was kind of ashamed of how quickly he went from fearless to pleading for his life, but this Psycho. He'd heard the stories. And that look in her eyes, Chang wouldn't wish that look directed on his worst enemy.

Abed laughed. A Harisson Ford laugh. He knew exactly when to switch to make him seem twice as frightening, that was for sure.

"When Mr Winger says Tuesday, he means _Tuesday_," Nadir said. "You're lucky it's just your fingers he's after this time around."

"No, please! I can pay! I can pay!"

"Oh, we don't doubt you can pay. We're just not interested in your money anymore," Barnes said calmly.

"Annie, finish him off," Nadir instructed.

He and Barnes put their guns back in their holsters, and walked out of the bar without a second glance.

Chang wondered what his chances would be of escape; How much pain he would have to suffer through if he even tried it.

Edison beamed at him, giddy with the joy of getting to torture some one. She took out a knife – she was known for that knife – and took a step closer to Chang, getting right up in his personal space.

"You know why they call me Psycho?" She whispered threateningly.

They called her Psycho because she was the most ruthless killer in Winger's gang; Because she had no mercy; Because she had her first kill when she was eighteen years old, and it wasn't one of those accidental kind of things either.

"It's because I had a nervous breakdown in high school," She continued. She pulled Chang's hand up right between their faces, and pressed the knife just under his fingers. The coldness of the blade sent a shiver down his spine.

Chang gulped. Psycho's grin widened.

"I'll start with the pinky. I always thought it was kind of pointless anyway," She said. Her tone light and casual.

And then she sliced his finger off in one swift motion.

XXX

_One Year Earlier_

Annie hated her job. She was proud of herself for actually getting a job, considering she hadn't even graduated high school, but it wasn't much of a win since the job was at the Dildopolis under her apartment.

She thought of maybe getting into the drug business again, but after last time, it would probably be a bad idea.

She was a very successful drug dealer for some time in high school. People usually paid when she asked, and her father was a doctor so she knew how to get the good stuff. But then the stress of it along with her SATs took a toll on her, and she started taking some of her own product.

Long story short, she had a breakdown, became Little Annie Adderall, got expelled, and kicked out by he parents. She kicked her drug problem in rehab, and managed to scrape up enough leftover cash to rent the apartment upstairs, but that was it.

This was her life now.

She sighed, and rearranged the DVDs. She liked to change them around whenever she was bored. This time it was by director, but sometimes it was alphabetical, or by genre. (The fact that porn had so many genres still baffled her sometimes).

"All I'm saying is, I'd like to do a little more of the heavy stuff. Jeff gets to do nearly all of it," A familiar voice said, as the bell above the door rang. Annie loved that bell. The way it made some guilty men flinch, always made her giggle a little.

She turned to see none other than Troy Barnes standing in the store. He was grinning at a pair of fluffy handcuffs, while talking on the phone to somebody.

"Hey, do you know when Britta's birthday is?" He asked the person on the other end.

He waited for a reply, then said, "I think I just found the perfect present for her." He snickered mischievously, taking the handcuffs from the rack, and turning towards the DVDs.

Annie had the urge to duck, but he'd already spotted her, and his eyes widened with recognition.

The last time Annie had seen Troy Barnes, she had been high and screaming about robots. Troy, like everyone else was laughing hysterically at the scene before him.

She'd always had a crush on him. She knew it was ridiculously schoolgirl of her to dream that one day he'd see her for the smart girl she was, and drop his popularity to be with her. She'd gotten expelled before any of that could happen, of course, but now, standing in front of him wearing a Dildopolis polo shirt, she felt herself fluster in that same way she did in high school.

She didn't look the same as back then. Part of getting better at rehab was getting herself healthier too. She lost weight, and got her braces removed, and cut her hair. She was normal now, and Troy was looking at her like he recognized her; Like she was Little Annie Adderall again, and she just couldn't have that.

"May I help you?" She asked, hoping that maybe she could trick him into thinking she was some one else. She may have been in love with him, (she may still be a little), but she couldn't deny that Troy was gullible.

"Abed, I gotta go," Troy said into the phone, and hung up, not once tearing his eyes away from Annie.

"I know you," He said, taking a step closer.

"I'm sorry, I think you have me mistaken for some one else. Do you need any help?" She asked.

Troy squinted at her suspiciously, but nodded and stepped up to the DVDs. "My boss asked me to pick some movies up for him."

"Your boss?" Annie asked skeptically. She'd heard plenty of embarrassed excuses before, but boss was a new one. Troy seemed serious too.

"Yeah, he's creepy like that," Troy said.

"Is there anything in particular he's looking for?" Annie asked.

Troy shrugged. "Boobs."

Annie nodded and started pulling a few DVDs she thought he might like. It pained her sometimes that she knew which DVDs had the most bust.

"You're Annie Edison," He said.

Annie's breath stopped. He said Annie Edison, not Annie Adderall. Maybe it was okay. Maybe he had noticed her after all.

"I know you are. You sat behind me in English," He said, smiling now, at the recognition. "I can't believe it's you."

Annie felt her heart flutter. This had to be a dream. Troy Barnes didn't just show up at marital aide stores and say things like that to her. This was like a fantasy she'd been having.

"I always wondered what happened to you after you got expelled. Everyone said you went to an insane asylum, but you always seemed too smart to be crazy," He told her.

Annie blushed. "I didn't know you knew who I was," She said. That's not true. Everybody knew who she was. It was hard to forget the girl that ran through the plate glass doors.

"Are you kidding? You ran a master drug-ring, right under the school's nose for a year. My friends bought from you all the time, they were always really impressed."

Annie didn't think he knew about that. He was never a part of her customer base. She felt kind of ashamed, but he did seem generally impressed with her.

"I know people who run drug-rings in colleges all over Greendale and none of them have as good a customer rep as you did in Riverside," He said. "You must be really smart, or something."

Annie giggled a little. This was the weirdest thing that had ever happened to her. No one had ever complimented her before, especially not over a drug business she ran when she was seventeen years old. And the fact that it was the love of her life, Troy Barnes, was even more insane.

Troy looked around the dingy, old store, then eyed Annie curiously.

"You still in the drug business?" He asked.

That caught her off guard. Did he want to buy some? Was Troy some giant junkie now? "No, I work here now."

Troy nodded, mulling the information over in his head. "Do you like working here?"

"Not particularly," Annie said slowly. What was he getting at?

"Good, cause I think I have an opportunity for you," He said, grinning at her again. With that smile, how on earth could Annie say no?

XXX

Jeff didn't have time for this. There was plenty of business he'd rather be taking care of than dealing with a rat, but Pierce wanted him to set an example so this sort of crap didn't happen again. It was already grating on his last nerve that it was happening at all.

He'd much rather deal with some of the drug mules, at least they were fun. Most of them were all talk, but sometimes they actually stood up to him, like they had a chance of living, it usually made Jeff's night more interesting.

Instead, he was stuck here, dealing with no good snitches who barely deserved a second of his time. They were always the same. Frightened and weak.

He opened the wooden door of the holding cell and looked at the lowly cop. He was kneeling on the dirty floor, doubled over, no doubt from the kicks Troy had served him earlier. He'd already given up, so Jeff knew this would be easy. He loved it when they were easy; He was a busy man, after all.

"Todd," Jeff said clearly.

Todd jerked up. The fear shone brightly in his eyes, and he wrapped his arms around himself to hide the fact that he was shaking.

"I- I-" He stuttered.

"Be quiet, Todd. I'll be doing all the talking from now on."

Todd gulped, and nodded in understanding.

Jeff sighed, that fake disappointed sigh he used whenever he wanted to show some one just how unhappy he was with their behaviour. He shook his head at Todd.

"We could have helped you, y'know. Mr Hawthorne is a reasonable man. If you'd just come to him, and told him about your money problems, he gladly would have helped. All he would have asked in return would be a favour," Jeff said.

He took a step closer, and Todd backed even further into the wall behind him.

"But you didn't do that, did you, Todd?" Jeff asked firmly.

Todd shook his head.

"Instead, you went to Laybourne. You told him things about _our_ operation; Things we didn't want Laybourne to know."

Todd gripped himself tighter, and Jeff went as close as he could go. He leaned over so he and Todd were face to face.

"Like I said, Mr Hawthorne would have done it for a favour, but Mr Hawthorne isn't willing to help you anymore. I am, but I'm afraid my price isn't quite as low as his."

He straightened up, sticking his hands in his pockets and tilted his head at Todd.

"You have two options, Todd. One: I send your wife and child some money. If she's smart, she won't have to worry about finances for a very long time. And in return, I take your life. Or two: You leave town, and never come back, and your wife stays in the exact same situation she's always been in."

"I- I'll g-go," Todd stuttered.

Jeff frowned. He didn't understand Todd. Willing to sell Pierce out to feed his family, and then willing to cross them just as easily. Jeff had met a few men like Todd before. He always hated those men.

"My father was just like you, Todd. He made mistakes, just like you. He had choices, just like you."

Jeff pulled his gun from his holster, and flicked the safety off, like he was so used to doing these days. "Just like you, my father made the _wrong_ choice," Jeff said, like they were talking about the weather.

"Wait! I-" Todd began, but Jeff grabbed a handful of his greasy curls, and yanked him so they were both standing up straight.

Jeff shot him in the stomach. The blood pooled over Todd's police uniform, and the man howled in pain.

"What kind of father ditches his poor family?" Jeff said calmly, through his gritted teeth.

He took another shot, basking in the way Todd's whole body jerked in response. "What kind of father leaves a kid and a wife alone, just to save his own skin?"

Todd tried to say something, but ended up coughing a mouthful of blood onto Jeff's shirt. Now Jeff was really pissed. It was new, and it cost more than Todd's house, not mention it was very hard to find this shade of blue.

"What's that? Got something in your throat?" Jeff asked conversationally. "Here, let me help you get it out," He said. And then he took one final shot right over Todd's Adam's apple. His neck blew apart, sending blood splatters in every direction. That was okay. This room was cleaned regularly anyway.

Jeff dropped the lifeless body to the floor. The blood pooled around his shoes. And _great_, Jeff thought. Let's all just bleed over his expensive clothes then. It's not like he got them in Italy or anything.

Ugh. He really hated dealing with rats.

XXX

Troy told her to meet him after work. He scribbled his address on the ripped off corner of a dirty magazine, bought the handcuffs and the DVDs, then left with a smile.

Annie had no idea what had happened. On a scale of one to never, this whole ordeal was on the never side of expectedness.

Still.

It was Troy Barnes, and he said he had an offer. A job offer. What he was doing offering jobs, was a mystery to Annie. She was pretty sure he got a football scholarship somewhere. But whatever it was couldn't be any worse than her Dildopolis gig. And also ... _Troy. Barnes._

She only got off work at 10, but Troy said come around any time, and Annie was too excited about whatever this was to wait. She wondered if he was gonna think she was lame for showing up so soon, but she didn't care. She'd have tons of time to win him over if she got the job, and she really wanted the job, whatever it was.

The address lead to a mansion. The mansion had iron gates, with a large H on them. They opened automatically as she drove up to them, letting her go all the way through to the front of the mansion.

Our on the porch, a woman with blonde, curly hair, stood with a sour look on her face as she smoked a cigarette. She eyed Annie suspiciously as Annie got out of the car.

"I'm looking for Troy Barnes?" Annie said politely. She wondered if this was his girlfriend. She hadn't asked earlier, but he bought those handcuffs for somebody, so maybe there was some one in his life.

"He's inside," The woman said, eyeing Annie curiously. She stubbed out her half-finished cigarette and nodded to the giant wooden door. "Come on, I'll bring you in for him."

Annie followed her into a large foyer with marble floor. There was a painting hanging on one side, of a handsome man with glasses smiling like a politician.

The woman led Annie through to a living room. Troy was on the couch playing Mario Kart against another tanned guy. They were both fixed on the game completely, although while Troy frowned and yelled at the screen, his opponent kept a blank expression the whole time.

"Troy!" The woman exclaimed. "There's some girl here to see you." She eyed Annie again. "I think she's selling girl scout cookies."

Annie made an insulted noise as Troy paused the game and grinned at her. "Annie!" He exclaimed, grinning. All the insult she felt instantly went away, at the way he looked at her.

"I'm so glad you showed up." He stood up, jumping over a couple of wires for the various games consoles they seemed to have, and put one arm over her shoulder, pulling her to the couch. She squeezed between Troy and his friend, while the woman continued to look at Annie with a slight frown.

"You are not going to regret this," He assured Annie.

"Troy who is she?" The woman asked.

Troy ignored her and pointed to his friend. "That's Abed, and the buzzkill is Britta." Troy said. "Guys, this is Annie Edison. The one I was telling you about, from my high school."

Britta and Abed both raised their eyebrows with intrigue. Annie blushed at the fact that Troy had mentioned her before. She always assumed she was invisible to him in high school.

"I brought her here for the Greendale job," Troy continued.

"The one Jeff's been freaking out about? Fat chance. Greendale is his baby. It's the first one Pierce is letting him run solo, there's no way he'll stick some little girl he doesn't even know into it," Britta said. Annie was starting to understand why she was the buzzkill.

"In all fairness, Jeff would be more likely to trust a sweet-looking stranger than one of us for something like this. Besides, she seems dependable," Abed said.

"Thank you?" Annie replied.

"You're welcome."

"I don't know. She looks too innocent. Have you ever done something like this before?" Britta asked.

"Done what?" Annie asked back.

Britta laughed. "Troy she doesn't even know what she's supposed to do."

"She _has_," Troy insisted. Annie felt her heart flutter. Troy was defending her! "She did it at Riverside, and she was great."

"That was high school, Troy. Greendale is a college."

"A community college," Troy shot at her.

"And what about Starburns. You think she can handle some one like him."

Troy turned to face Annie. "You work at Dildopolis."

Annie nodded.

"You must have faced more than a few creeps."

"Well, yeah. But I keep pepper-spray in my purse at all times."

"Pepper-spray?" Britta scoffed. "Wow, Troy, you found the most PG drug-dealer in the whole Greendale area."

"Wait, drug-dealer?" Annie asked.

Before any of them could explain further, a tall, grumpy-looking man walked trough the door. He wore a perfectly tailored suit, that looked more expensive than Annie's entire closet. His shirt and tie were both stained red, and he was wiping his face with something covered in red too.

"Jeff! I need to talk to you!" Troy exclaimed, springing up from the couch to stand in the mans way.

Jeff glared at Troy. "Can it wait? My shoes are gonna get ruined"

"He brought you a present, Jeff. You should hear him out," Britta said, with a smirk. She was obviously enjoying watching him suffer.

Jeff sighed impatiently, and gave Troy an expectant look.

"I found you a dealer for Greendale Community College," Troy said, pointing at Annie.

Jeff glanced at Annie, then frowned back at Troy. "Is this a joke?"

Troy shook his head.

"Troy, she's like twelve years old," Jeff said in annoyance.

Annie wasn't sure why, but something made her stand up and interject. "Hi, sorry. It's just, in high school I ran a very successful drug business under the table for almost a year and a half. I sold to students from every clique, managed to make a few thousand dollars, not to mention I never had any trouble getting clients to pay up. I was very respected despite being a loser." She said.

"The only reason it failed was because I started doing Adderall, but I'm clean now, and I really think I'd be good for this job."

Annie wasn't sure when she'd decided to take the job. It wasn't a good idea. Her life had crashed and burned so spectacularly the last time she involved herself in any of this, and it would be dangerous for her to go near drugs, in case of a relapse. Dildopolis wasn't satisfying her though, and Troy was here.

Jeff frowned at her. "What's you name again?"

"Annie."

He smiled politely. "Annie. Well, Annie, with all due respect, running a high school drug business is a lot easier than what I have in mind. I need a professional who can stand up for themselves against some very ambitious competition, and who can keep their college clientele in check. And you are a schoolgirl who's only here because she thinks she still has a shot at being the quarterback's girlfriend. And don't worry, he's dumb enough not to know what the hell I'm taking about," Jeff said quietly, leaning in to Annie's personal space.

He shot another glare at Troy, "don't you have work to do?" And then he marched out into the foyer and up some stairs.

Annie gaped. No one had ever talked to her that harshly before. Even her horrid mother, had the decency to hide her insults behind a veil of fake motherly love. Annie felt the burn of tears in her eyes, and a lump in her throat, but she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Troy.

Britta rolled her eyes, and walked back out of the room to finish her smoke, while Abed continued to stare blankly at Annie like he was trying to read her.

"I guess we caught him at a bad time," Troy said apologetically. "Don't worry, I'll make him come around."

"Troy, you don't have to," Annie said, willing herself not to cry.

Troy shrugged. "Annie, your work is some of the best I've seen. We may not have known each other that well in high school, but the truth is I always admired you."

"You did?" Annie asked, cursing herself at the hopeful sound in her voice.

"Yeah, you were brilliant," Troy said earnestly.

Annie beamed at him. "Thanks," She said, feeling herself flush.

Abed cocked his head at her, and smiled ever so slightly, like he'd found something he wanted in her eyes.

"It was great meeting you, Annie," He said before walking out of the room.

Troy watched him go with as much confusion as Annie, then turned to her and smiled. "You wanna play Mario Kart?"

XXX

"You should hire Annie," Abed said as he entered Jeff's office. Other than Pierce, Abed was the only one with the privilege of entering unannounced without getting shot for it. Mostly, it was because Jeff trusted Abed more than anyone else.

Abed sat himself in a chair in front of Jeff, and stared him down, waiting for him to reply.

Abed was smarter than he led on. He knew how to work things in his favour, which was why Jeff recruited him in the first place.

Abed had been working at a falafel stand before his job working for Pierce. As a kid, he'd watched the Godfather many times, and there was a reason those movies weren't for kids. He became obsessed with the mafia. He knew how it worked from the inside out, and he wanted to be a part of it.

He'd studied up on Greendale's gangs as he got older, and had recognized Jeff from the moment he stepped up to order his falafel. After some impressive demonstrations at how good he was a reading people, Jeff recommended him to Pierce.

Pierce may have been racist and daft, but even he couldn't deny that Abed was gifted, and not in that way that kids who eat paste are gifted. Abed was a once in a lifetime essential for this kind of business. And Jeff was the genius that had discovered him.

From that day on, Abed had been Jeff's right-hand man. Which didn't actually mean much, since all Jeff was was Pierce's right-hand man. But if Jeff had his way, it wouldn't be like this for long.

"Why is that?" Jeff asked.

"She has potential. She could be great," Abed said.

"The cookie-cutter in the tight sweater? Somehow, I don't really see her fitting in," Jeff said sarcastically.

"She's lived through some things, Jeff. I can tell. I think if we tap into the ruthless side of her, we could bring some one really valuable to the team," Abed said. "I'm not usually wrong about this."

"You were wrong about Todd," Jeff said bitterly, because he was still pissed off that Pierce sent him to deal with it rather than just doing it himself.

"I may have misjudged on that one, but you can trust me on this. Annie's gonna bring something new to this team."

Jeff leaned forward on his desk. "Abed, this isn't one of those things where you get me to hire some one because you think they can give the group dynamic what it's missing, is it?"

Abed was silent.

"For the last time, we're not TV characters! And I'm not hiring her. She's too inexperienced. Starburns would eat her alive, and not to mention the turf war we have going on with Laybourne is already escalating pretty fast."

Abed frowned. "How fast?"

Jeff tended to keep Abed on a need to know basis, but Pierce was being a jackass and worrying about re-election, so that left Jeff to handle everything on the business side of things. On the outside it looked like he was getting a chance to run things, but he still had to answer to Pierce, and follow all of Pierce's rules.

It was stressing him out, and he hadn't gotten a chance to vent to anyone about it in months, since he and Britta had stopped sleeping together.

Jeff sighed. "They took out Pavel."

Abed nodded in understanding. He and Pavel were pretty close, but then again, it wasn't like Abed showed much emotion anyway. If he was upset, Jeff wouldn't know it.

"Pierce wants to go after Slater, and Britta's all for it too, but I don't think we should."

"Why? I thought you ended things with her months ago."

"I did," Jeff insisted. "Slater's too easy. If we go for her, we'll just work our way up the chain of command until we're all getting shot at. It's gonna drag out, and I don't want that."

"So what do you suppose we do?"

"We send them a message. We take Rich."

"We're sending them a message that you hate Rich?"

Jeff clenched his jaw. "No. We're sending them a message that they're not safe. You know, because Rich is their doctor?"

Abed nodded. "That's pretty good."

"Except Pierce doesn't want to try it," Jeff sighed. "He's old-fashioned, and we're gonna fail if he keeps this up. Knowing Laybourne, if we sit on this, he'll think he has more power and attack again."

"So what are you gonna do?" Abed asked finally.

Jeff sighed. He had no idea what he was gonna do. He had a plan of course, but with Pierce being his usual, stubborn self that plan was useless.

He decided to focus on the one thing Pierce wasn't in charge of, the Greendale Community College operation.

"I'm going to consider Annie."

Abed punched the air with success.

"I'm gonna have to test her first," Jeff said. "I can't have Little Miss Morality ruining this for me."

Abed nodded in agreement. "You made the right choice, Jeff." He stood up and headed for the door. "And I think you'll make the right choice about this turf war too."


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N - Holy cow! An update that didn't take three months? This is madness. (Madness? THIS ... IS ... SPARTA! Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)_

* * *

><p>Annie's morning routine usually involved breakfast, a run through her gang-infested neighbourhood, shower, and then working all day to scrape enough cash to start college by the next semester.<p>

It was habit, and Annie was used to it.

What she wasn't used to, was people knocking on her door early in the morning.

She didn't have anyone who would want to come to see her, unless her mother had a change of heart, but Annie doubted that.

She looked through the peephole to see a police woman standing outside smiling widely. She had dark frizzy hair, that she kept in a bun under her hat, and she looked like the least threatening cop on the planet.

"_Helloooo_," She cooed when Annie answered the door. "Are you Annie Edison."

"Yes. Is there a problem officer?"

"No. I just want to ask you a few questions," The cop said. She introduced herself as Officer Bennett with the Greendale PD, and she wanted to know if Annie knew anything about drug-dealing around the Greendale area.

Ironic, Annie thought, considering the job she'd been offered then rejected for the night before. A part of her told her to say what had happened. Drugs were bad, if anyone knew that it was Annie. But she'd feel like a giant hypocrite.

"I haven't heard anything. Sorry."

"Nothing?" Bennett squeaked. "Because we know you were at the Hawthorne mansion last night, and the owner has been known to have his hand in the drug business."

Annie frowned. "I was there visiting a friend," She said firmly. "I didn't even meet Mr Hawthorne."

Bennett raised her eyebrows. "And what did you and this friend do?"

"We played Mario Kart," Annie said. "And I don't see why you were following me in the first place. I haven't done anything wrong."

Bennett nodded, still smiling. "I'm gonna have to take you in," She said.

"Why?" Annie asked, suddenly panicking.

"I can't say just yet, Miss Edison. Not to worry though, you're in no trouble," She said, her voice saccharine sweet.

Annie seriously doubted this was no trouble. When a cop says they have to take you in, it's almost always trouble, especially in this neighbourhood.

Still Bennett didn't ask to cuff her, she just opened the door, smiling and nodded for Annie to follow.

Annie was cautious, but her life had been very odd lately, and somehow a strange cop taking her in wasn't as frightening as it normally would have been.

Bennett let her sit in the passenger seat of the cop car, never once dropping her unsettling smile. They drove in silence for the entire ride, as the cross hanging on the rearview mirror, danced between them.

Annie realized soon that they weren't going to the police station, but rather, to the Hawthorne mansion.

Bennett drove her right to the front of the porch, and got out, expecting Annie to follow.

Annie trailed behind as Bennett walked right in the home as if she lived there. Once inside, Annie saw Jeff, Troy, and Abed all waiting in the foyer. Troy was grinning proudly, Abed was staring at her blankly, and Jeff just looked as annoyed as always.

"Jeffrey, you should really have that gate fixed. You know anyone can just drive right in," Bennett said.

"We've been busy recently. Forgive me if a gate is the least of my problems," He said, but thanked Bennett anyway.

Bennett smiled, giving them all a wave before leaving again.

"Congratulations," Jeff said, not congratulatory at all. "You've passed the test."

"Test?" Annie asked.

"That was one of our cops. Her name's Shirley," Abed explained.

"You guys have cops?"

Jeff smirked. "Kid, this is so much bigger than you can even imagine," He said.

Annie gulped. "Shirley mentioned that this was the Hawthorne mansion. As in Pierce Hawthorne?"

"The one and only," Troy said giddily.

The Hawthorne's were one of the oldest crime families in Greendale. They owned half the police force and kept their hands in almost everyone's back pocket. They even took money from Annie's father sometimes. She'd seen Hawthorne men drop by the office, demanding their share for protection.

Any time a body showed up dead somewhere around Greendale, it was nearly always connected to Pierce Hawthorne, though nothing had ever been proved. And if it wasn't him, it was Laybourne's gang, who had had a rivalry with the Hawthorne's for years.

This wasn't just a random job, Troy had recruited Annie for. This was the mafia. Troy wanted her to sell drugs for the mafia. Troy was _in_ the mafia.

"We wanted to see if you would remain loyal to us, or let your morals get the better of you," Jeff said. "So we sent our cop to give you a little scare."

"I wasn't scared," Annie said defiantly.

Jeff took a step forward, coming right up to face her. "You do realize, if you do this, there's no going back. This will be your life, and you'd better be prepared to live it."

Annie tried not to let him intimidate her. He had a cocky air about him, one that probably worked in his favour when he was trying to scare people. But he was still a normal man. He styled his hair like a normal person, and he wore fancy suits, like normal business men.

He may have been far from normal, but he looked it - they all did - and for Annie, that was enough.

"I'm ready," She said,trying to be as assertive as possible. "I can do this."

Jeff didn't look convinced, but he nodded anyway. "Then welcome to the family, Annie. Troy and Abed will debrief you."

He turned to Troy and Abed, who both looked extremely excited to have some one new to show around.

"I have to go deal with Chang," He said.

He gave Annie one last nod, before walking out of he mansion.

Once he was gone, Troy jumped up excitedly and pulled her by her arm. "I am so glad you passed," He said. Abed walked along the other side of Annie, patiently watching them both with a thrilled sparkle in his eye.

Troy and Abed showed her all around the mansion, although they didn't stay anywhere for longer than five seconds. Then they led her to their bedroom. Apparently, there was enough rooms for everyone, but Troy and Abed were always going into each others' rooms anyway, so they knocked down the wall between them, and just made it one big room

None of the newbies and lesser workers like Annie got their own place. Troy and Abed were apparently very important to Pierce's operation. As well as Jeff, who was Pierce's consigliere, and Britta, whose job they kept vague, but from the look in their eyes, was very exciting.

They explained what her job was going to be. Apparently, Laybourne was running a drug business in most of the local colleges. Since the two crime families were in the middle of a turf war, they both wanted to take as much from each other as possible, so that they could keep more money. Pierce already had City College, but GCC was still Laybourne's.

Pierce had told Jeff he could run an operation to get some one in there and steal all of Starburns' customers, so Laybourne would lose GCC as well.

It sounded easy enough. Greendale wasn't exactly known for having Ivy League schools. It would be easy to pretend to go there, Annie could even sit in to some classes if she wanted to, that was what Troy told her.

All she had to do was find a client-base, and make better business than Starburns so that Pierce could take back GCC and all areas surrounding it.

Troy said, Pierce would even provide her with a room on campus, so that it would be easier for customers to find her, and they already had a supplier who was bringing in the good stuff.

They didn't want her to sell anything heavy. It was mostly just pot and some pills, which Annie could do easy enough.

She assumed like most crime syndicates, if she did this well, she'd move up in the food chain, and she really wanted to. She wanted to prove to Jeff that she wasn't just some girl scout in over her head. She wanted to prove to her mother that she could do something with her life. Most of all, she wanted to prove to Troy that she was still the amazing girl he was so inspired by.

This was her life now and, if Annie Edison had any say in it, by the time she was done here everyone would know who she was.

XXX

"Chang!" Jeff exclaimed as he walked in the bar. It was mostly empty apart from a few kids playing pool and ditching school, and an old biker drinking alone in a corner. Chang was playing with a coaster, in boredom.

He jumped up at Jeff's entrance. "Winger, what brings you around these parts?"

"You know why I'm here Chang. Pierce wants his money."

"What, he's too lazy to come for it himself?"

Jeff wasn't in the mood for this. Chang was possibly the most annoying human being on the planet, and he just wasn't in the mood.

"We both know you're not worth the boss' time."

Chang smirked. "But I'm worth _yours._ What does that say about you?"

Jeff bit back his anger at the tiny Asian man, and sighed wearily.

"You know, Laybourne's given me an offer. A pretty good one. A raise if you will. I think I might drop the double agent shtick and just stick with him."

"You don't wanna do that Chang," Jeff warned.

"Well my price has gone up. You want info on Laybourne, you're gonna have to give me a little extra."

"And you still owe us protection money for the last two weeks so consider us even," Jeff spat. "Next week, you won't be so lucky."

"You think you're so tough," Chang shot at him with a smirk. "You need me, Winger. And it kills you."

He was right, of course. Pierce insisted on keeping Chang around to spy on Laybourne. Laybourne's men always dropped by Chang's bar, and he picked up information every now and then. If it were up to Jeff, Chang would have died a long time ago, but then again, a lot of things would be different if it were up to Jeff.

Jeff just hated that the idiot never got in trouble for not paying when there were perfectly sane people Jeff had to torture for the money.

"Things will change one day," Jeff said quietly. "And when they do, I am going to really enjoy coming after you."

Chang looked skeptical, and not at all afraid of Jeff's words. That was okay, it would be more fun when he caught him off guard.

"You better have your cut ready for next Tuesday," Jeff called back to him as he left the bar. It was a lost cause. Chang wouldn't have the money, and Pierce wouldn't let Jeff do anything about it.

Jeff felt the frustration sinking in deep. He needed a drink.

That, and he needed to talk some damn sense into Pierce.

XXX

Annie spent the rest of the afternoon with Troy and Abed. Britta dropped by briefly, before disappearing into her own room to work on something for Pierce.

Abed and Troy played videogames for most of Annie's visit. They let her join in whenever they could, weirdly excited about having some one new around.

It was strange that these two were part of one of Greendale's biggest crime families, yet they could act like ten year olds all day. Annie wondered if they'd ever killed some one.

She didn't think so. People who murdered didn't look like that. From the sparkle in their eyes, they'd probably never even seen dead bodies before.

Annie saw one once, at her grandmother's funeral. All she remembered about it was how much it smelled. She could probably handle a dead body if she ran into one, but from what Troy and Abed told her, she'd mostly be staying on the light side of business.

Troy had explained to her how he got into the _family_, while he and Abed kickpunched houses into smithereens.

Troy had gotten a football scholarship. He figured seeing as his tuition was free, he might as well take advantage of the student loan system. He scammed three different schools, out of a lot of money, using it to buy videogames, and a car. They eventually caught him, and he got kicked out of college and thrown into prison. Pierce had heard about him, though. He bailed him out and recruited him for business.

Apparently, Jeff didn't really like Troy when they first met either. He thought Troy was too clumsy with the way he did things, but as it turned out Troy's quarterback arm was good for more than throwing footballs. Now, whenever Jeff needed extra muscle, he called Troy for the job, although, Troy seemed to want to do more than an occasional scare with Jeff.

It was clear from the way he talked about it that he wanted more responsibility.

Abed kept his mouth shut the entire time. He watched Troy and Annie carefully, but only ever reacted when Troy looked over at him expectantly.

After that, Annie came over every day, after work. She'd handed in her two week notice to her boss, and had already started packing up to move into the Greendale dorms.

She was really excited. There was a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach every now again, that made her feel nauseous, but she ignored it for the most part. This was good for her. She'd get to learn new things, and experience the world, and get to spend time with Troy.

This was gonna be a good thing for her. She could tell.

XXX

When Jeff entered Pierce's office, the old man was standing in front of a white background getting photographed. He was wearing a sombrero and an eyepatch, and he was smiling like the powerful man that he was.

Jeff rolled his eyes. It wasn't the worst thing he'd walked in on, but he just wished for once he could walk in on Pierce reading, or doing _anything_ that wasn't weird in some way.

As soon as Pierce noticed Jeff, he waved away the photographer, and sat himself behind his mahogany desk.

"Jeffrey, you have news for me I'm sure," He smiled politely.

Jeff knew it was all false pretense. Pierce and Jeff had been having issues for a while now. It was little disagreements here and there, but they were growing more and more frequent with each passing day.

The issue was simple, Pierce wanted to stick to his usual way of doing things, and Jeff wanted to screw that plan and go with the practical, smart way of doing things. Pierce somehow always won that argument, mostly because he was the boss.

"I found a dealer for the Greendale project," Jeff informed him.

"Oh really, who?" Pierce asked.

"Her name's Edison. Troy knew her in high school. He claimed she was the best of the best," Jeff said. He kept it impersonal when he gave Pierce these updates. He liked it better when he knew more than Pierce did, even if Pierce was in charge. Pierce didn't understand his people, and over all, everyone was just happier when it was Jeff handling them, and not Pierce.

He nodded with understanding. "But that's not why you're here, is it, Jeffrey?"

Jeff shook his head. "I want to talk about our retaliation against Laybourne."

"I told you. We go after Slater."

Jeff sighed. "Look, I know you think taking out Slater is gonna get him back, but she's nothing. We need to show that they can't disrespect any of our people, even people as low on the food chain as Pavel. If we go after some one as weak as -"

"Jeffrey," Pierce said, holding up a hand to silence him. "I know, you think you understand this, but I know what I'm doing. Remember, I taught you everything you know."

"And I'm forever grateful for that," Jeff said. "I just really think -"

"Enough, Jeffrey. This isn't a discussion. We're taking out Slater."

Jeff sighed back into the squishy chair he was sitting on.

"If we don't stick up for ourselves, Laybourne will think he can screw with any one of us. The next attack isn't gonna be one of our drivers," Jeff told him honestly.

"And we'll take the next attack as it comes. I have this under control."

"With all due respect, you have no idea what's going on. You've been to immersed in campaigning for re-election, even though we already know you're going to win. We have half this city paying protection, there's no way any of them would vote against you."

Pierce shrugged. "I'm not gonna make a half-assed job of this, Jeffrey," He said, pouring himself some whiskey from the bottle he kept in his drawers. "And you're gonna drop this retaliation issue."

Jeff sighed. There was no winning with Pierce. It didn't matter how sound his arguments were, Pierce always had the final say in this, and as long as Pierce was in charge, Jeff wasn't going to get his way.

He hated to admit it, after everything Pierce had done for him, but Jeff kind of wanted the old man to retire already. He wasn't what he used to be, and honestly, Jeff had a better grip on how the business worked these days.

As soon as Pierce retired, Jeff would be in charge and then they could move on to better things instead of sticking to Pierce's way. The only problem was the old man was stubborn as all hell. He wouldn't give his seat on the criminal throne for anything, which meant Jeff would be second best for the forseeable future.

"Is there anything else?" Pierce asked.

"Chang hasn't payed his cut," Jeff said. "And he's raising his price. Again."

"Give him whatever he wants," Pierce said dismissively.

Jeff rolled his eyes. "He's not worth it."

"He's worth what I say he's worth," Pierce said. "That it?"

Jeff nodded.

"Good. I need to finish my portraits."

"A sombrero?" Jeff asked.

Pierce shrugged. "I'm going after the Mexican vote."

"Are you also going after the pirate vote?" Jeff asked, gesturing to the eyepatch.

"Jeff, just because they speak Spanish, doesn't mean they're pirates."

Jeff rolled his eyes. This was the man he had to answer to, ladies and gentlemen.

XXX

Annie was nervous on her first day. It had been over a year since she'd last done this, and she was worried she might have forgotten how it worked, or lost her touch. She didn't want to screw this up and disappoint everybody, not to mention make a fool of herself.

Plus, she just knew if she failed Jeff would give her some sort of smug look that she'd want to punch away.

However, despite her anxiousness, it was surprisingly easy to get back into the groove of things.

Abed had given her a list of names - people he knew who definitely wanted to buy already, (apparently, Abed took a film class at Greendale), so Annie didn't have to go on a scavenger hunt for new customers. It was mostly just stressed out students looking for some weed to help them relax, or performance enhancers to help them work better, and pull all-nighters. Why anyone at this school would want to pull all-nighters, was beyond Annie.

She got herself a nice little reputation going within the week. Abed's friends spread the word about what she had, and how much better quality it was than Starburns' crap, so she had new people coming up to her soon enough.

Th drug trade, it turned out, was even easier in college than it was in high school. Back then everyone was nervous and twitchy; In college though, everyone was relaxed.

Annie figured out a way to make her business work pretty quickly. She had a schedule. Cafeteria and library on Mondays and Wednesdays, the quad and the main building on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on Fridays, she floated around the gym area since that was when most sporting teams practiced.

It only took her a week and a half to get a system, a regular client-base, and become the best supplier on campus.

After three weeks of success, she finally met the one they called Starburns.

He looked exactly like you'd expect a college drug-dealer to look, like the opposite of Annie. His hair was curly and greasy; He wore a top hat like a mad man, and his sideburns were shaped like a star. The nickname suddenly made a lot more sense.

"This is my area," He said, as he marched up to her.

"I don't see your name on it," Annie countered.

She'd grown confident with her business, over the last few weeks. She'd spent enough time with Troy and Abed to know that if anything happened to her, they'd defend her, and she knew she was pretty well-liked around here. If Starburns even tried to get rid of her, Greendale's tokers and pill-poppers would have an uproar.

"You don't wanna play this game with me, princess. I've been doing this a lot longer than you. I will crush you," Starburns threatened.

"What are you gonna do, call the cops?" Annie teased. She was getting cocky, she knew, but she couldn't help herself. Things were going good for her. She was happy for the first time in a long time, and she wasn't afraid of a guy with constellations on his face.

Starburns glared at her, and walked away, but from the look in his eye, this wasn't over. Annie was kind of giddy about it actually. It turned out, making a fool out of greasy drug-dealers was pretty fun.

XXX

Jeff was right about the hit on Slater. It did nothing for Laybourne except cause a minor inconvenience. Plus, she'd gotten feisty since the last time he'd seen her, so now Jeff was sporting a black eye that hurt every time he blinked.

Slater may have had a lot of faults, but if there was one thing she was flawless at, it was throwing a solid punch.

Now Jeff was waiting for Laybourne's attempt to get back at them, which was sure to come, and was sure to be a hundred times better than whatever Pierce had in mind. This was ridiculous, they shouldn't be going after simple soldiers like Slater, they should take it to the big leagues. Like Rich.

Jeff really, really, wanted to kill Rich.

It didn't help that Britta laughed at him every time she saw him. Or that Troy and Abed re-enacted the whole scenario whenever Jeff entered the same room as them. Or that Annie was always around, always laughing along at his misery like she was part of the team.

Sometimes, the only thing that kept Jeff from shooting her, was the fact that she was brilliant at her new job. That, and she had impressively large eyes. They did something to him, although he'd never admit it.

Jeff felt the stress catching up to him. Pierce was as unbearable as ever, and Jeff was getting a little tired of doing all the work for no reward. He wasn't expecting a cake every time he did something right, but it wasn't like it would kill Pierce to actually listen to him. Or maybe it would, he was pretty old after all.

Jeff sat himself down in the kitchen they all shared. He'd cracked open the liquor cabinet, and was more than a little tipsy on his best scotch. This scotch was the best alcohol in the entire mansion, even better than Pierce's crap.

What Jeff loved most about it, was that it was all his. Everything in this house had to be shared on some level, whether it was information, or a bedroom, or dinner, or bullets, or just time. Jeff didn't get a lot for himself, but what he did get was scotch.

Everyone knew it was _his_ scotch. If anyone touched it, they'd get their head blown off, and Jeff wouldn't regret it for a moment.

It wasn't like it mattered. Troy and Britta didn't drink scotch, Abed didn't drink period, and Pierce had his own stash stored away in his office, he didn't need to mooch off Jeff.

He filled his glass again and swallowed the contents down easily, loving the way it burned his throat.

As he set the glass down, Annie came in in her usual flurry of legs and giggles. Why was she even here? Pierce had given her a perfectly good room at Greendale, and that was like a ten minute walk. A walk she should be taking home. Right now.

She looked surprised to see him there, but gave him a polite nod anyway, opening up the fridge.

"I thought I sent Troy and Abed out on a job," Jeff said. He was positive there was some uncooperative bartender he'd sent Troy out to beat up, and Abed was collecting information from all of Pierce's worker bees.

"You did," Annie said, taking a yogurt and peeling of the top, licking the lid innocently.

Jeff swallowed and stared at the half empty bottle of scotch, suddenly feeling very guilty for no reason.

"So why are you here?" He asked, not looking at her face.

She leaned across from him, on the kitchen island. "Troy said I could come over whenever I wanted; Plus, you guys have cable."

"Yeah, I think the sole purpose of that is so Abed can watch Inspector Spacetime," Jeff said. He was being conversational. Why the hell was he acting like this? He didn't even like Annie. He didn't want to spend any time in her company. Ever.

Annie dipped the spoon in, taking some yogurt. "Well at least now there's two people in this house that use it."

Jeff finally looked up at her. "Except that you don't live here."

She nodded. "Ten minute walk." She shrugged.

"I take it business is good?"

Annie nodded, smiling. She was enjoying her job. Jeff could tell. She was wearing the same look Jeff had worn when he was first starting out; That giddy excitement in knowing you're doing something bad and getting away with it.

"Have you had any run-ins with Starburns?" Jeff asked.

"We've met," She said, vaguely.

Jeff filled his glass again. "Is he gonna be a problem for you?"

"I can handle it," She said.

Jeff nodded. "Good."

They stayed in silence, Jeff staring at the amber liquid in his glass, with no intention of drinking it, and Annie standing in front of him, eating her yoghurt.

"Is everything okay, Jeff?" She eventually asked him. "You seem..." She trailed off.

"Business," Jeff said simply. "It's hard work, what I do."

Annie gave him a hesitant look, then leaned forward a little. "What _do_ you do?"

Jeff met her eyes, curious at what it was she was getting at. "I told you," He answered carefully. "Business."

Annie nodded, and scraped up the little leftover bits of yogurt at the bottom of the cup. "Have you ever killed anyone?"

Jeff smirked. She reminded him of himself a little, curious and eager, no idea what she was getting into.

If Jeff could go back, he probably wouldn't change anything, but he certainly would have sat himself down and told younger Jeff to stop acting like he'd seen it all. He still had a lot to learn, and he didn't need to act like a little snot while he learned it.

Jeff spent most of his years learning the tricks of the trade from Pierce. Jeff's dad was a dirty cop, who took off when Jeff was still a kid. Or at least that was what his mom told him, Jeff had a sneaking suspicion that Pierce had killed good old Bill Winger. Not that he cared much for the man. He was only Jeff's father by blood.

After that, Jeff's mom had asked Pierce for financial help, offering Jeff to do any jobs around the house that Pierce had wanted. It was all very Goodfellas, but slightly more PG. When Jeff was fourteen he found Pierce's gun, and asked him how to use it. Pierce gave him small jobs instead, like the drug things that Annie did, but for Jeff's eighteenth he took him to the shooting range.

From then on, Jeff was always around to learn from Pierce. Pierce was like a second father to him, and Jeff owed him everything.

But he still hated Pierce most of the time.

"Have you?" Annie repeated.

"Edison, I'll be glad to tell you all about that when you're ready, but right now you're still a ball of fluff in the well-oiled machine that is this operation. I, on the other hand, am the electricity that's running it, and therefore do not have time to share my life story with rookie drug-dealers."

"I'm hardly a rookie," Annie scoffed. It was almost cute the way she thought she knew so much.

Jeff smirked in amusement. He swallowed down his scotch, just so it wouldn't go to waste, and gave her a look of finality.

"Goodnight, Edison. Go home."

XXX

Annie never had any trouble with competition at Riverside. No one else had the access to pills like her, so no one else sold them. Annie was the only one, and if you wanted some, you knew to go to her. Because of that, Annie had zero experience with competition.

She sort of wished she had. In hindsight, it probably would have prepared her for this.

Starburns did, in fact, call the cops on her. They didn't say it was him, but she had a feeling.

It was really embarrassing too. A crowd had gathered, her customers looked on in guilt and confusion, from some corner Annie caught the flash of Starburns' hairy smirk.

She had flashbacks of that breakdown. The crashing into plate glass doors. The ambulance taking her away. The cops coming to see her in the hospital, telling her she'd have to go to a hearing.

She was too young to go to prison, but juvy wasn't out of the question. Luckily, her father was an influential doctor who was owed a lot of favours. Unfortunately, that was the extent of his kindness and Annie was kicked to the curb as soon as her mother got the call from the principle asking Annie not to return to school for the rest of the year.

Now she was being taken into a holding cell and given one phone call. She wasn't sure who to call. Troy and Abed might be busy, and Jeff would _definitely_ be busy. And mad. She couldn't call her parents, they hadn't spoken to her in a little over a year.

Annie panicked momentarily, afraid that she was completely alone, before she swallowed it down and just called Troy. He'd probably think less of her now, which sort of hurt, because she wanted him to love her, but it was better than Jeff.

The police brought her in for questioning after her call. They asked her where she got the drugs and who she was working for. Annie didn't answer. They kept threatening to throw her in prison. She'd have to do at least two years for this, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't scared. She saved face though, calm in the knowledge that Troy would help her.

Troy didn't come to help her though. Instead, Jeff showed up, looking _very_ annoyed.

The cops seemed to know him, and didn't look too happy to see him there either.

Jeff said he was Annie's lawyer. The cops rolled their eyes, muttering about how they knew Hawthorne was behind this somehow. They tried to argue with him, but Jeff was brutal.

He tore down any arguments they had with three sentences or less, using his lawyer skills to destroy anything they may have had on Annie. Somehow, she went from being a college drug-dealer to being held against her will because of circumstantial evidence.

She had no idea how Jeff had managed it. She barely even understood half the things he said to the police, but by the time he was done the cops were uncuffing her, grumbling in annoyance and promising to wipe her record clean.

Jeff didn't wait for her to get her things back. He just walked straight to his car, and waited for her to join him there.

When she got in the passenger seat, she could cut the tension with a knife. Jeff's jaw as set, and he looked like some one who'd rather be doing anything else right now.

"I'm sorry," Annie mumbled.

Jeff didn't take his eyes away from the road. "You said you could handle it," He said. His voice was steady, and quiet, but there was a rage hidden in there, that made Annie's heart race.

Troy had told her stories about Jeff chewing people out. Apparently, it wasn't a pretty procedure, and more often than not, newbies had ended up shaken because Jeff tore them apart, limb from limb, using only his biting words.

Troy said he'd gotten chewed out by Jeff once, and had cried justifiable, manly tears.

Abed hadn't been chewed out yet, but he suspected it was because Jeff had a soft spot for him. Something about Abed meant he didn't have to follow the same rules as everyone else when it came to Jeff. Also, he probably would have stared blankly, and frustrated Jeff even further.

"I thought I could. I didn't think he'd -"

"No you didn't _think_," Jeff interrupted her, firmly. "You're lucky the dean is gullible. You can go back to pretending you go to school there, and you can keep your dorm room."

Annie wanted to say something, but she had a feeling this was supposed to be a one-sided conversation. She hadn't faced the full wrath of Jeff Winger, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"You're gonna have to lie low for a couple of weeks. Find your customers, let them know you're still in business, but nothing public. If they want it, they come to you."

Annie nodded in understanding. "What about Starburns?"

"I'll handle Starburns."

"I can -" Annie tried but Jeff interrupted her.

"No, you can't. This is _my_ project. It's the only thing I have where I don't have to answer to Pierce and his cartoonish view of the world, and I'm not letting _you_ ruin it. You will do as I say, and I'll take care of Starburns. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Annie said. She felt a lump in her throat, and crying was the last thing she needed right now. If she cried, Jeff would probably throw her out of his car for being weak. He was right about her. All she was was a pathetic schoolgirl.

She sniffled and gulped down her tears.

Jeff seemed to notice she was on the brink of tears though, by the way he kept glancing over, curiously. From the way he was acting, you'd think he'd never seen some one cry. He probably hadn't in a long time. Jeff wasn't the kind of guy who had time for crying.

"In future," He said softly. "If you get yourself into any trouble, skip the middle man and just call me."

Annie gave him a questioning look.

"It's my job to make sure no one on this team gets into trouble, including rookies, like you. Also, you won't have to embarrass yourself in front of your prom date."

"Troy's not my prom date," Annie muttered.

"But you wish he was," Jeff shot at her. He didn't seem angry anymore. It had melted out of him, and now he just looked the way he always looked. Tired.

"No," Annie denied. It was a rather pointless excersise. Jeff was right. Jeff knew he was right. It was one of the first things he'd ever said to her.

He scoffed.

Annie decided to screw denial. It wasn't like she was convincing anybody anyway.

"How did you know?" She asked.

"Because you can't go five seconds in the same room with him without going all googly-eyed or blushing like ... well. Like a schoolgirl." Jeff relaxed a little behind the wheel. "It's my job to read people."

"I thought your job was to get people out of trouble," Annie countered.

"I have lots of jobs," Jeff said vaguely.

"You ever gonna tell me what they are?" Annie asked.

"Not even a little," He said with a smirk. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, giving her a gentle look she'd never seen on anyone before.

"Look, don't worry about this, alright? You're new, it happens. I made just as many mistakes as you when I started out."

Annie nodded. It was comforting hearing that. Knowing Jeff was a screw up like her once, and now he was practically running the entire thing, it gave her hope for the future. When she was young, idealistic, and still innocent, she believed she'd be great at somethign someday. Maybe this was it. Maybe crime was her calling, and she just needed to learn the ropes.

"Thanks, Jeff," She said with a smile.

XXX

The problem was, Annie was getting under his skin. Something about that doe-eyed girl just did stuff to Jeff's head, so that he couldn't be himself with her. Obviously, he was himself, but he was all soft and ... _human. _Jeff Winger was not a human. Jeff Winger was a cold blooded killer. Who killed. Like, murder and stuff. It was _serious business_.

He was the most murderous murderer to ever murder, and he wasn't about to change for anyone.

But Annie did something, and whenever he was around her, he just couldn't be _that_ guy. He was still hard on her, like everyone, he still wanted to kill her a lot of the time, but.

But.

He couldn't explain it. It was just _different_.

And he resented her for it because he didn't have time for any of this. Feelings were not a part of his job, and right now, his job was to get rid of Starburns.

It was no secret that Starburns worked with Laybourne. They weren't exactly what you'd call i_n__ cahoots_, but at least ten percent of Starburns' profits went right into Laybourne's bank, the same way that Chang's profits went to Pierce's. Or would be going, if Jeff had his way.

It wasn't hard to track down Starburns. Normally, for something like this, Jeff would just give him a scare, but he still wanted to give Laybourne a bigger retaliation than just Slater. One of his insignificant drug-dealers, would do just fine. He was small enough for it not to cause too much of a counter-attack, and important enough for Jeff to feel satisfied.

And boy was he satisfied.

He took his time with Starburns. He should have felt honored, not many victims had that privilege. Jeff had been having a slow day, and he figured he should treat himself, after he so valiantly got Annie out of her pickle. It wasn't too hard on Jeff's part. He'd lawyered his way out of much bigger accusations for Pierce.

With Starburns, Jeff decided to go after the things that annoyed him most. He started with the hat. Well, the hair under the hat. It wasn't like destroying the hat would inflict any pain, so Jeff scalped him instead.

Next was those stupid things on the side of his face. Jeff cut them off. And not just the hair, the skin too. It was extemely gratifying.

Starburns screamed through the whole process, but Jeff lived with Troy and Abed, so it wasn't like he wasn't used to noise.

He did his work slowly and carefuly, cherishing every drop of blood he spilled. He peeled of bits of Starburns' skin, until he was nothing more than muscle in body form.

These particular kills, the creative ones, gave Jeff a thrill he couldn't get anywhere else. Not even sex gave him such a feeling.

It probably meant he was sick in the head, or something like that, but it had worked out for him so far, so he embraced it.

Besides, he rarely had the chance to take his time with this anyway. It came every once in a while, and he was going to take advantage of the opportunity.

Starburns continued to scream, until eventually there was nothing left for him. And when Jeff was done with all the skin-peeling torture, he shot him. Right in the melon.

It was rather nice actually; Helped him a lot with all his stress.

XXX

Annie did as she was told. She layed low and let the customers come to her. Her business took a bit of a hit, because of the earlier bust, but eventually students lost their fear and came to her again. It seemed this time around, that she as getting even more customers than before. She recognized a lot of Starburns' usuals, and wondered what Jeff had done, exactly.

Starburns had fallen off the face of the earth. No one had heard from him, and no one had seen him anywhere.

Annie had a sinking feeling that he was dead. She didn't want to believe it. She knew Jeff had probably killed some one before. Even if he didn't admit it. She wasn't stupid.

But the thought of it sent shivers down her spine. She could picture it in her head, Jeff pulling the trigger on Starburns without hesitation.

She wondered if Jeff would ever do the same to her. If he would get rid of her if she screwed up.

She didn't want to find out, that was for sure.

But it intrigued her. She just wanted to know everything Jeff did, because he was already such a mystery. And not just to her, but to everyone.

The only person who seemed to understand him was Abed, and even _he_ was caught off-guard on occasion.

Just last week, Abed was saying how Jeff had sent money to the family of a mole that had infiltrated them. That didn't seem normal for anyone. And all Annie wanted to know, was why.

It had occured to her that the more interesting Jeff became to her, the less interest she had towards Troy. She had been safely locked in the friendzone for months now. Troy had even had a few girlfriends since, never once noticing that Annie was practically throwing herself at him every chance she got.

Abed noticed. He always looked throughly amusd by it, and he never mentioned anything to Troy, which was confusing as hell. Abed was her friend; Why wasn't he helping her?

She'd asked him once, but all he said was some madness about the group dynamic. She decided to just not ask Abed anything anymore.

The thing was, she didn't want to find Jeff interesting. Jeff was dangerous, and heartless, and kind of a giant ass when he wanted to be, and sometimes when he didn't. He was complicated, and mean. He had a past with Britta, that everyone knew about, and Annie didn't want to step on any toes. Hell, Annie didn't even want to pursue it at all.

It was nothing.

It was a silly crush, because he was the _bad boy_.

Annie just had to forget about _it_ for everyone's sake.

And then Jeff came up with the genius idea of teaching her the ropes.

"You're skilled, sure, but you don't know how to put them to proper use," He'd said.

And that was it. He was gonna teach her how to be a proper drug lord. She was going to spend a lot of time around him from now on, and _it_ wasn't going to be quite as avoidable as she'd have liked.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N - I'm cutting down the chapter sizes because I'm lazy. Also this is kind of a filler, but I have the next part half written so it should be up this weekend. Thank you all for your lovely comments, you're all awesome._

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><p>Laybourne didn't waste any time getting them back for Slater and Starburns. He hit them right where it hurt this time around, taking out three of Pierce's contacts in the bank, and one of Pierce's judges. It was still business, but Jeff had a sinking feeling that things were gonna start to get real personal, real soon.<p>

Laybourne was trying to get a rise out of them. He wanted to scare them enough that they wouldn't fight back. Chang had come up with some info, saying Laybourne was bitter about losing Starburns, and was planning on taking back the drug business around the college campuses.

On the bright side, Annie was rocking the Greendale operation, like she was born to do it. Without Starburns in her way, everything was going successfully. Jeff felt a sense of pride, knowing his first solo project was going so well. He sort of wanted to boast about it in front of Pierce, but the old man probably wouldn't give a crap.

Annie was learning quickly too. Their lessons weren't very frequent, or even scheduled. Usually they had one whenever Jeff thought of something he wanted her to know. He taught her a few tricks about spreading the word. Gave her ways to stay hidden from cops or campus security.

He wanted to take her out to their supplier soon. It was barely any different than what she was doing, except for a little more dangerous at times. Their supplier, Vaughn, was sort of unpredictable. He sold good stuff; Jeff wasn't sure where he got it, but he knew he was shipped in most of the time.

Annie wasn't quite ready to meet Vaughn yet, but she was well on her way. Jeff was sort of excited about it.

Overall, his workload seemed to be lowering. Things were finally starting to go his way, and Jeff found himself finally having enough free time to go to the casino every now and again, for a round of roulette. He hadn't been able to do that in a very long time, and it was nice having somewhere to go where he didn't have to hear Troy and Abed playing Kickpuncher, or Britta acting like … well, Britta.

And then Laybourne made his next move, and everything went to hell.

XXX

Annie and Jeff were sitting together in the living room discussing marketing tactics. Jeff was trying to teach her how to get word to areas outside the college. Apparently, Annie was good enough to take her drugs to the actual streets now. He still wanted to keep her on the Greendale campus, but he didn't want her to limit herself anymore. She was still only selling the light stuff, but she had a feeling he was gonna move her up to some more hardcore drugs soon.

She wondered is she should feel bad about that, but it seemed the more time she spent in the Hawthorne mansion, the more her morals thawed away.

Jeff was explaining to that she should expand slowly, only taking the neighbourhood where GCC was situated at first. He had a map in front of him, and he was in the middle of circling the areas he wanted her to cover, when Britta burst in.

Her hair was askew, and there was blood on her hands.

"They went after Shirley!" She announced to the room.

Troy and Abed shared a look, from the couch where they were playing some crazy card game, and jumped up, following Britta out. Jeff went after her too, completely forgetting about their lesson.

Annie followed slowly behind, not sure if she was in the group enough to be a part of this.

Shirley was lying in the foyer covered in bruises from her to toe. Her uniform had bloodstains all over it. She looked like she had fallen off a mountain.

"What the hell happened?" Troy exclaimed.

Britta stood by Jeff's side, still panic-stricken.

"Was it Laybourne?" Abed asked Shirley.

"Of course it was Laybourne!" Britta shouted. "Who else would it be?"

"Everybody calm down," Jeff said. "Britta, go get Nurse Jackie. Troy, Abed, move Shirley upstairs to whatever bedroom's nearest."

Britta ran off without another word, and Troy and Abed nodded, getting to work right away.

Jeff turned to face Annie. He gave her a surprised look, almost like he'd forgotten she was there. "Go home, Annie," He said firmly, before grabbing his keys and walking towards the door. Annie followed quickly behind, trying to keep up with his large strides.

"What are you gonna do?" She asked.

"I need to have a talk with Pierce," Jeff said through gritted teeth.

Annie didn't know much about the mafia hierarchy. She knew Pierce was in charge and Jeff was right under him, but she didn't know if that meant Jeff could yell at Pierce. From the determined look on Jeff's face, it didn't matter.

"Why are you going after Pierce? I thought it was Laybourne."

Jeff reached his car, jamming the keys in furiously. "There's a certain politics to this sort of thing, and right now, Pierce is as much to blame as Laybourne," Jeff spat. "Go home, Annie," He repeated, more angrily this time, then drove away without another word.

XXX

"Pierce!" Jeff practically shouted as he entered Pierce's office in City Hall. Pierce hardly ever used it, preferring to run things in his mansion, but every once in a while he needed to act like he was the mayor and not a crime-lord, and that involved a visit to City Hall.

"Jeffrey, what brings you here?"

"Guess who was right about Laybourne?" Jeff asked, pulling the newspaper from Pierce's hand and throwing it to the other side of the room.

"What, did they get another judge?"

"No, Pierce! They tried to get Shirley!" Jeff exclaimed. "He's making it personal now, and you know it."

"Jeff, that's hardly-"

"He thinks he can screw with you, and this is his way of showing it!" Jeff shouted. "Do not tell me we're just going to let this sit and then go after another one of his irrelevant goons. We need to fight back!"

"And how do you suppose we do that, Jeffrey?" Pierce said, a look of annoyance on his face.

"We show him that if he keeps going after our people we'll take something he loves."

"And what would that be?"

Jeff smirked. "The factory." His plan was great. He'd been considering it since Slater, and if anything, the attack on Shirley made him more sure than ever. He didn't care about going after Rich, anymore. That wouldn't make a difference to Jeff. Now he wanted to take down Laybourne if it was the last thing he did.

Laybourne and his men had a factory. They passed it off as a cracker factory, but everyone knew that was where he handled most of his drugs, and stolen goods. It was all the merchandise he had. If they got rid of it, Laybourne would have nothing. His business would take an nosedive until he managed to get new supplies for his men to sell.

The cops may never be able to get a warrant for the factory, but Jeff could think of other ways of getting rid of it. Britta probably had a few tricks up her sleeve, and it had been an outrageously long time since they'd used her skill-set. She was practically unemployed.

"No," Pierce said firmly.

"What do you mean _no_? It's a great idea."

"It'll start a war."

"We're already in a war! And losing!"

"The answer is no Jeffrey. We will retaliate the way we always have. Go after the guys they keep at the dock or something. Don't make this personal."

Jeff sighed, but nodded. "It is personal, though," He said quietly. "Shirley's your friend, and Laybourne knows it. You know it won't be long before he starts going after Troy, or Abed. Or me."

And with that Jeff left City Hall.

He had no intention of doing what Pierce had said. Pierce was busy with all this re-election nonsense, anyway. He wouldn't noticed if Jeff bent the rules a little bit. And Jeff had been basically running the operation for the last couple of months. He didn't need Pierce's permission. He was more of a boss than Pierce ever was, and all of Pierce's men were Jeff's men first. They liked him better, they trusted his judgment. They would help.

If Laybourne wanted a war, Jeff was gonna give him exactly that, and he was going to win it.

XXX

The attack on Shirley drove everyone on the edge. Annie came to visit every day, but everyone was too busy to talk to her.

Abed was always out running errands and collecting information on Laybourne. The entire week, Annie only saw him twice. She had a feeling she was in the house more than he was.

Troy and Jeff were attached at the hip. Every few hours they'd leave the mansion together, and come back with Troy's knuckles a little redder and Jeff's clothes stained with some one else's blood.

Britta, it seemed, did in fact have a purpose. She spent nearly all day sitting at the kitchen island building a device, that Annie wanted to think wasn't a bomb, but knew deep down that it was an obvious fact.

The mansion had maps scattered all over the place. Jeff had set up a bulletin board in the living room, and covered it in pictures of random men who worked for Laybourne and of the cracker factory. Every day he'd take a picture of one of the men down, with a vindictive smile on his face.

All of them were so busy that they hardly spoke to Annie. Her business didn't seem quite as big and bad when she was watching them actually work on something that mattered.

She spent all her time talking to Shirley instead. Shirley stayed in Britta's bed for the next couple of days. Jeff brought her kids over to the mansion, and let them stay as long as they didn't come downstairs and disrupt anyone's work.

Shirley, Annie learned, had been a friend of Pierce and Jeff's since she was first starting out as a cop. When she began, she wanted to catch Pierce, not willing to let her integrity go for some extra cash. Through the years she learned that Pierce had a lot of cops in the Greendale PD, and even if she tried to catch him, she'd never be able to make it stick. It annoyed her at first, but then Jeff started moving up in Pierce's business, and since he was the Hawthorne lawyer, they ran into each other a lot.

Somehow, Jeff and Shirley became friends, sharing gossip about Shirley's fellow cops, who Jeff seemed to know by name. He charmed her out of information, never giving anything in return, until eventually Shirley started charging on all these tidbits. They ended up with a deal, and after her husband left, Jeff gave her more to do. Now Shirley was working for them entirely, and Jeff was sending her money to help with her house and kids.

"I'll tell you, that Jeffrey may seem threatening, but deep down he's a softy. Once you're on his team, he'll do anything for you," Shirley said with a smile.

Annie was beginning to see that.

Jeff had never worked as ferociously as he was now that he was getting revenge on Shirley's behalf. On the outside, it may have looked like he was just trying to retaliate, but every time Jeff passed by Shirley's room he went in with a smile and encouragement that he was gonna make it up to her.

He even played with her kids for a little while, when Troy and Abed were out, and Shirley was sleeping.

This wasn't just business for him. He cared, and he was going to make sure Laybourne knew just how much.

When Friday came around, Jeff had a smile on his face again. He told Troy and Abed to stay in the mansion and play with Shirley's boys. They both seemed disappointed, but Jeff barely noticed. He, and Britta, told Shirley to come with them, because they had something to show her.

"Annie, you're coming too," He said, as they all stood, putting on their jackets.

"What? Why?" Annie and Britta asked at the same time. Britta frowned at Annie suspiciously afterward.

"I want you to see how we take care of our own," He'd said simply, with a smile on his face.

They drove out to a little cafe on main street, that didn't seem very important. The barista seemed to know Jeff, and sat them in the front, right at a window.

"Britta, how long do we have?" Jeff asked.

Britta checked her watch, and smiled. "About a minute," She said, pressing a button.

Jeff grinned at her, with a look in his eye. It was like nothing Annie had ever seen before. She'd seen many sides of Jeff in the short time that she'd known him, but this look was something else. This look was almost … evil. She shuddered, and sipped her hot chocolate, as Jeff told Shirley to just look out the window.

"In case you're ever in doubt, this is how much you mean to us," He said to her. "And you too," He added to Annie. Britta sent them a curious look, but Annie just avoided meeting her eyes.

Annie wasn't sure what exactly he was talking about, but then from the distance, there as a loud bang. Everyone on the street stopped and looked in the direction of the noise. A few streets over, a cloud of flames rose up into the sky, followed by ash. An explosion. A bomb.

Britta smiled smugly at the mushroom cloud rising up into the sky. Jeff looked a little proud too. Shirley's expression was unreadable. She looked mostly surprised, like this was the last thing she'd ever expect.

"You blew up the factory for me?" She asked quietly.

Jeff nodded.

"Oh, Jeffrey." She took his hand and squeezed it gratefully, then hugged Britta tightly.

The bruises and cuts were mostly healed now, only leaving tiny shadows on her cheeks.

"Just remember you can always count on us, Shirley," Britta said. Shirley seemed giddy at all the affection Jeff and Britta were showing, in their weird Jeff and Britta way.

There was a sparkle in both their eyes. Unique and mysterious. Annie found herself wishing she could understand it. She didn't know when this feeling had started. It could have been just as the bomb blew up, it could have been there from the first moment she met Jeff and saw that designer shirt with mixtures of blue and red, that he was wearing.

All she knew was that she wanted to understand that look. She wanted to watch an explosion and feel the utter glee that they felt. She wanted to be a part of the team. The good stuff, _and_ the bad stuff. The simple drugs, and the elaborate revenge plans.

Annie wanted it all, and more.

XXX

After the cafe, they all went for a walk. Shirley wanted to go see the wreckage. Britta wanted to see if the FBI were there yet. They would probably know it was her work, some of her best if Jeff was being honest, but they could never prove it, and he just knew Britta wanted to gloat about that for a while.

Pierce always said she was humble, but Jeff knew that was the most far-off deduction of Britta known to man.

Jeff was just happy he finally got to get Laybourne back. Of course, this meant his workload was gonna get worse. This was just the beginning. Everything was going to be serious business from now on, but he reveled in the short victory. This was a good day, and all his work had finally paid off.

Annie walked alongside him, as Shirley and Britta went on ahead. She stared at her feet, shyly, as they walked. Jeff worried briefly that he might have shown her too much to soon, but Annie was stronger than she looked. She may wear sweaters and short skirts, but Abed had been right. She had the potential to be one of the best, and Jeff wanted to tap into that potential, now more than ever.

"What are you thinking?" He asked her, slowing down his pace so that Shirley and Britta would be too far to hear.

Annie looked up at him with her giant eyes. "This is so much bigger than just a drug thing isn't it?" She asked quietly.

Jeff nodded.

"And you've killed people. People I know." It was meant to be a question, but it came out as more of a statement.

"Starburns," Jeff admitted.

Annie nodded. She looked up at him again, with a determined look in her eye. "I want you to teach me."

Jeff frowned. "Teach you what?"

"Everything. How to shoot a gun, how to defend myself if some one ever tries to come after me, like Shirley. How to kill."

Jeff tried not to laugh, because it would probably insult her. "Annie, why do you want to know how to kill?" He asked.

"I don't know," She said honestly. "But what happened to Shirley, I couldn't help. Britta has this amazing skill, and Troy and Abed are strong, and smart. And you're amazing at everything," She said. "I want to be able to help."

"You're doing fine," Jeff insisted.

"I'm selling drugs to college kids. I'm nothing," She said in annoyance. "I want a bigger part in the business, Jeff."

Up ahead, Shirley and Britta had already reached the wreckage. Shirley was beaming like a child on Christmas morning, while Britta was shooting smug looks at all the firemen, who all looked like they'd punch her if she wasn't a woman.

Jeff stopped walking and turned to Annie.

"We'll start small. I have a business meeting that you can tag along for. No talking though, and you don't handle a firearm until I say you can. Deal?"

Annie smiled. "Deal," She said, holding out her hand for Jeff to shake. The more serious she was about this, the funnier Jeff found it. Annie would be great, he knew that, but she was still a naïve, little girl on the inside. Jeff needed to get rid of that before he showed her anything too taxing.

There was a part of him, a very small part, that said this was a bad idea. It was the same part that told him to eat an extra slice of cake for dessert, and nagged him to just scam Pierce out of his position as boss. It was the part that always wanted to be around Annie, always begging to step closer, and watch her pretty face a little longer.

Sometimes, it even begged Jeff to kiss her, though he never would. Still, that tiny part grew louder every day, and right now that tiny part was telling him that this wasn't going to go as planned, and Jeff should stop kidding himself.

As always, he ignored it. Annie moving up in the crime world was a good thing, and Jeff liked teaching her, so this was good. It was all good.

XXX

When Jeff had first told everyone about the plan to blow up the factory, they'd all asked if Pierce was okay with it. Jeff had said yes even though Britta claimed it didn't sound like Pierce. Abed had sat silently and watched Jeff suspiciously, through the entire thing, but as usual, hadn't said anything.

Annie realized when Abed did that, it was because he knew something he shouldn't. In that example, he knew Jeff was lying.

Pierce it turned out, was very against the idea.

Annie had never met Pierce, despite spending all her free time in his mansion. She'd seen pictures of him before, in the papers and in portraits around the house, but she'd never actually met him face to face. From all the stories about him, he seemed kind of intimidating. A man so ruthless would probably frighten her to bits.

Britta refused to admit it, but Pierce scared her sometimes. Annie could see it in her eyes, whenever Jeff told her Pierce wanted to see her.

After the explosion, Annie finally had the pleasure of meeting Pierce Hawthorne.

She wasn't even at the mansion to hang out or anything. She was only stopping by to drop Jeff's cut for the Greendale project, and then leave and get some sleep.

When she went inside, she could hear shouting coming from the kitchen. Troy and Britta were standing in the hall, peeping through the doorway, too afraid to go inside.

"What's going on?" Annie whispered.

"Jeff went against Pierce for the plan to blow up the factory," Troy said. "They've been going at it for about an hour."

"Wait, Pierce is _here?_" Annie asked. As far as she knew, Pierce didn't spend any time outside his office, or City Hall.

"Oh yeah," Britta said. "And he is so mad." She looked like she wasn't sure if she was enjoying Jeff getting into trouble, or afraid that Pierce might catch her and Troy spying.

"Where's Abed?" Annie asked.

"Caught in the crossfire, poor guy," Troy said. Annie peeped inside, over his shoulder.

Abed was indeed caught in the crossfire. He was sitting at the kitchen table, eyes moving back and forth between Jeff and Pierce like he was watching a game of ping pong. Jeff was at the sink holding a glass of scotch, looking really bored, while Pierce shouted scorn at him. Pierce was by the fridge. His arms were flailing and his face was red.

Annie didn't know him very well, but even she could tell that wasn't a look she would want thrown in her direction.

"It was the right thing to do!" Jeff insisted.

"You specifically went against my orders, Jeffrey," Pierce shot back, not listening to Jeff.

"And now Laybourne _knows_ we're an actual threat!"

"I don't care! Laybourne is not the problem here, you are!"

"Poor Abed," Annie said quietly.

"I swear, one day his loyalty to Jeff is gonna come back to bite him in the ass," Britta noted.

"I can't believe you would disobey me like that."

"I can't believe you thought I _wouldn't_ disobey you like that. You were acting like an idiot."

"One day, Jeffrey, this attitude of yours is going to get you in a lot of trouble," Pierce warned, he turned to head for the door, and Troy and Britta fled instantly. Annie wasn't quite as prepared, and ended up standing around awkwardly when Pierce walked out.

He scowled down at her. "Who are you?"

Annie wanted to tell him, but her throat closed up. She opened her mouth, then closed it again when she realized noting was coming out.

"She's my dealer," Jeff called out.

Pierce scoffed. "Her?" He said turning back to face Jeff. "She's just a kid."

"She's the best," Jeff said firmly. Annie had never heard him say that about her before. She knew she was good, but she doubted she was the best. Jeff was probably only doing it to be argumentative, but it still made her stomach flutter.

Pierce turned back to Annie, eyeing her up suspiciously.

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen," Annie said.

Pierce laughed. "Wow, Jeffrey. Your best drug-dealer is an _eighteen year old girl_?"

Jeff was unimpressed by Pierce's insults. "If anything, I think that says something about the guys you hire, considering they're all in their thirties and nowhere near as skilled as her," He shot at Pierce, then took a victory sip of his scotch.

Pierce glared at him, and walked away without another word. "This isn't over, Jeffrey," He called back as he walked up the stairs.

Jeff waited a good few seconds for him to get out of earshot, then turned to Abed.

"You're collecting from northern nieghbourhoods, right?"

Abed nodded.

"Tell them we've gone up by ten percent. If anyone fails to pay, I want you to give them a scare, but don't kill them. I don't want to have to deal with more dead bodies," Jeff said, like he wasn't aware that Annie was standing right there.

He never talked business in front of her. In fact, he never talked business in front of anyone.

"And who do I bring the extra ten to?"

"Me," Jeff said. "Pierce stays out of the loop for this little project." He poured himself another glass and took a seat across from Abed. "And don't tell Troy anything. This stays between you and me for the time being."

The corners of Abed's lips curled up with understanding. He nodded, and walked out of the kitchen, with an excited expression.

Annie wasn't sure if she should go in, or come back later, but Jeff beat her to it. "You gonna stand there all night?"

She walked over to him hesitantly, and dropped the envelope with Jeff's usual thirty percent. "I have your cut," She said simply.

Jeff picked it up, and flicked through the cash carelessly. "Good job," He said simply, though he didn't sound like he meant it. He looked tired, and stressed. More so than usual. There was something stony in his face. Something new. It was like his determined look, but also much different, like the cogs in his head were all turning at top speed.

"That business meeting of mine is tomorrow. I want you here no later than midday, understand?"

"Yes." Annie nodded.

"Good," Jeff said. "You can go now."

Annie gave him a final nod, and left like he'd asked.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N - I wasn't gonna post this today but I figured the fandom needed a pick-me-up from all the bad news we've been getting. SIX SEASONS AND A MOVIE, YOU GUYS!_

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><p>Jeff didn't bother explaining what it was he was going to be showing Annie. She wasn't an idiot though; she knew that when he said <em>business meeting<em> he meant something else entirely. She just didn't know what that something else was yet. She was anxious to find out, though.

Jeff seemed to be in a much better mood when she arrived at the mansion. He'd gotten over his argument with Pierce, and Annie figured it was the sort of thing that happened regularly, people just didn't talk about it. Like those times when Troy left the mansion with a clean baseball bat, and came back with a bloody one. Or those times when Abed treated himself to a new DVD with mysteriously sourced money.

Everyone knew what was going on, but nobody said anything.

"I hope you're ready for this," Jeff said, as they got in his car so he could drive them to wherever it was that they were going.

"What exactly are you gonna do at this _business meeting_?" Annie asked.

"Well, as you know, most of Greendale pay us a little fee for protection. If they ever need a favour, they come to us, and we help them out, all they have to do is pay us a little cash."

Annie nodded. "Yeah, my father used to always pay. He never got a visit from anyone important, though. Usually, it was that Leonard guy."

Jeff grimaced. "Ugh, Leonard. Your father's lucky. You don't want to get a visit from somebody important, usually that means it's bad news."

"You mean like now?"

Jeff smiled. "Exactly like now. A neighbour of ours, Vicki, has loyally paid us for years. She recently got a new boyfriend who has been less than kind to her, so I'm going to take care of that for her."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna make sure he's not a problem anymore," Jeff said, smirking giddily at her.

Either he was enjoying keeping it a secret, or he was enjoying the fact that he was gonna get to beat some one up today. A part of Annie wanted it to be the former, but an ever larger part wanted it to be the latter. She wondered if that said something about the kind of person she was becoming.

They reached a small suburban house. There was a large girl in a yellow coat and hat, Vicki presumably, watering down some flowers with a hose.

Jeff gave her a charming smile as they both climbed out of the car. Vicki looked nervous, but determined. She knew Jeff wasn't gonna go easy on her boyfriend, but she seemed to be okay with it.

As they got closer, Annie noticed that Vicki was sporting a large purple bruise on her left cheek. So that's what the boyfriend had been doing. Annie was glad Jeff was gonna handle him now. Jeff may do a lot of bad things, but he still had a kind streak. At least he wasn't all bad, and if anyone deserved a beating, it was monsters like Vicki's boyfriend.

"He's inside," Vicki told Jeff, coldly.

Jeff nodded. "You might not want to come in for a the next ten minutes or so," He told her honestly, then led Annie inside the house.

The house was nice and clean. It looked rather homey, actually. There was a fireplace, that didn't look very used, and pictures all over the place.

"Mike?" Jeff called out as he walked through the house.

Annie saw through some sliding doors that Mike was out in the garden. He was lifting weights. He was much larger than Jeff, though not taller. His muscles were as big as Annie's head, and he had a greasy, blonde mustache that matched his hair. Overall, Annie thought he was pretty gross looking.

Jeff wasted no time striding through the doors and up to Vicki's large boyfriend.

"Mike, is it?" He asked.

Mike lowered his weights and squinted at Jeff. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Jeff Winger, a friend of Vicki's, and I'm here to tell you to please pack your things and leave."

Mike scoffed. "Winger? I've heard all about you. You work for that old rat, Hawthorne."

Jeff's expression darkened at the mention of Pierce. Maybe he wasn't quite as over it as he was pretending to be.

"Yes, I do actually," He said through gritted teeth. "Vicki is a very loyal customer of our services, and she kindly requests that you pack up your things and leaver her life. Forever."

Mike squared his shoulders and took a step closer to Jeff. "I'm not afraid of you."

Jeff just tilted his head to the side, like Mike was nothing but a puppy trying to act like a wolf. "I don't care, Mike. Vicki is, and she wants you gone. So go."

"You're gonna have to make me," Mike spat.

Jeff smirked. "I am so glad you said that." He took a step closer, and Mike threw a punch at him. Jeff swung himself out of the way, causing Mike to trip forward. Taking the opportunity while Mike was off-guard, Jeff gabbed the back of his neck and pushed him all the was up against the nearest wall, holding his arm behind his back. Half of Mike's face got squashed against the red bricks of the house.

"The problem with men like you, Mike, is that you think you can do whatever you want," Jeff said threateningly into Mike's ear. He said Mike's name like Mike was nothing but a disgusting rodent, which wasn't that far off, the way Annie saw it. He pulled Mike from the wall, smashing his head against it one more time. The impact was rough enough to cause a large gash to appear on Mike's forehead. Jeff let him go and he fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

"You can't do what you want, though. _I_ can do what I want, and I want you to pack your things and leave this town. _Never_ contact Vicki again. And if I ever hear about you doing what you did to her, to any other woman, I will find you, and I will tear you apart from the inside out," Jeff said. His voice was low and dangerous.

He had a look in his eye; The same look he wore while watching the cracker factory explode. He was enjoying himself, that was for sure, but it was more than that. His eyes were bright, and young, and full of intense life. He didn't sound like it was an empty threat either. Jeff would tear Mike apart if he wanted to, and he'd enjoy every second of it.

Annie didn't know if she was frightened or aroused, but they were both things she really shouldn't be feeling towards Jeff right now.

Mike didn't respond, so Jeff bent over, making himself seem even more intimidating. "Do you understand me, Mike? Or am I gonna have to bash it into that empty shell you call a brain?" Jeff sounded like a teacher talking down on a student, which made the fact that he was threatening Mike's life seem even more disturbing.

"I understand," Mike whimpered.

"Then get moving!" Jeff ordered. He gave Mike a swift kick to the side, causing Mike to flinch and cough. He jumped up and scurry inside the house as fast as he could.

Jeff watched him leave, then smiled at Annie. "And I didn't even have to use my gun."

Annie swallowed. "That was ..."

Jeff shrugged modestly. "That was the basics," He explained. "There's still a lot more for you to learn."

"Can't wait," Annie said before she stopped herself. Jeff just smiled at her curiously, stepping closer to her again.

"You are the strangest person, Annie Edison."

Annie just smiled back.

XXX

Jeff didn't take Annie straight back to the mansion. Dealing with Mike, that was just the first of many little things Annie was gonna have to learn about. What Jeff had in mind for now, was a present.

She'd handled the Mike situation better than Jeff would have thought. She may be tiny, but she was also strong. She didn't flinch when Jeff rammed Mike into the wall, and she didn't seem afraid of him afterwards. Well, not entirely afraid.

Even Abed, was a little scared the first time he'd witnessed Jeff trying to scare the crap out of some one, and Abed wasn't afraid of anything.

"Where are we going?" Annie asked, as Jeff drove through the Greendale streets, towards the docks.

"I have a surprise for you," Jeff said with a smirk.

She gave him a suspicious look, but grinned anyway. Deep down, Annie was still an eighteen year old girl. She loved surprises just as much as any teenage girl would.

"You have a soft spot for struggling people don't you?" Annie asked him, as he drove. She watched him expectantly.

"Everybody's struggling, Annie. Some just handle it better than others."

She rolled her eyes. "If you don't want to answer, just say so. Don't bother trying to divert my attention."

Jeff glanced at her curiously. She was too smart. It was either gonna get her into a lot of trouble or get her out of it. Jeff wasn't sure which one yet, but that's usually how it went with smart people in the business.

"What do you mean by soft spot?" He eventually asked.

She turned to look at him, surprised that he was actually letting her talk to him about this. To be honest, Jeff was kind of surprised too. Maybe she was a little more under his skin than he thought.

"Abed said you sent a mole's family money once," Annie told him. "He also said you do things like that a lot. Help people who have tough domestic situations. And the way you were with Shirley and her kids. It just seems like you have a soft spot."

"I don't like it when things are unfair," Jeff admitted after a moment of silence.

"You steal, and you kill, not to mention a whole bunch of other illegal activities you refuse to tell me about," She told him with a pointed look.

"I didn't say it made sense," Jeff said. "I'm a lawyer. My job is to make sure people get what's coming to them when they deserve it. Most of the time, they do."

"You also keep Pierce and everyone else out of trouble, when they probably deserve it just as much as anyone."

Jeff shrugged. "They're family. There are no rules when it comes to family." He caught her eye, and saw her watching him carefully. Her giant, blue eyes looked like they could see right through Jeff, and it made him feel anxious, but in a strangely good way. "Why do you ask, anyway? Do you think it makes me weak or something?"

Annie shook her head earnestly. "You still get how normal civilians think. I don't think anyone else in the group understands what that's like anymore. It makes you great."

"Why, because deep down I'm still partly human?"

"No. It's because you know how to give them what they want and still gain something from them. It's a good skill, Jeff. It doesn't make you weak at all."

Jeff never really thought about it that way. He did have a soft spot, he knew that. He just always ignored it's existence for the sake of saving face, but maybe she was right. He knew how to cater to the people, and it's a lot easier to get people on your side when hey like you.

At the docks, Jeff led her out to his usual meeting placer with Vaughn.

"Remember this place," Jeff told Annie was he led her past yachts that belonged to men richer than both Jeff and Annie put together. Maybe not as rich as Pierce. No one in Greendale really was.

"Why?"

"Because from now on, you'll be collecting from the supplier," He told her with a smirk.

Her eyes brightened at the new responsibilities.

They reached the end of he dock, where Vaughn was waiting as always. He looked high, which wasn't uncommon with him, and he'd lost his shirt somewhere, which made Jeff roll his eyes. Vaughn may be a dirty hippie, but he was the best supplier in town so Jeff had to put up with his weird antics.

"Vaughn, this is Annie, one of our dealers," Jeff said.

"Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you," He said, giving her a mellowed out nod. Annie giggled, girlishly which made Jeff frown. Great, now he was gonna call her something lame like _his blueberry_ and she was gonna fall for it the same way Britta had.

Jeff still had nightmares about Britta's revenge plans against him. In the end, Jeff got Shirley to deal with Vaughn instead of letting Britta blow him up. They couldn't afford to kill him at the time, so he got off lucky. He might not be so fortunate this time around. Jeff already didn't like him, and if he turned Anne into a hippie dealer like he was, Jeff was gonna drown him in bong water like he'd always imagined doing.

Seriously, he was not in the mood for this. Not for Vaughn. Vaughn didn't deserve girlish giggles.

"She'll be meeting you from now on," Jeff said.

Annie shook Vaughn's hand, with a shy smile. Vaughn grinned at her.

"It'll be a pleasure trading with such a beautiful mountain flower," Vaughn said. And there was the lame nickname Jeff had predicted.

He rolled his eyes, as Annie blushed. Why was it that whenever Jeff wanted to shoot some one, it was always some one he couldn't afford to replace? He made a mental note to get Abed to find them some more suppliers.

"Anyway," Jeff said loudly. "The prices stay the same, the amount stays the same. If you try to scam us again, it won't be just your tiny nipples that Shirley will come after," He warned.

Vaughn's face fell, and he looked serious, which was a rare occurrence. "I understand," He said.

Jeff nodded and handed Vaughn his usual amount. Vaughn gave Annie the bag of drugs, with a smile, before giving Jeff a respectable nod.

"Nice doing business one last time, Winger."

"Yeah, yeah," Jeff said, not quite sharing the sentiment.

Vaughn shrugged. "Bye. See you. Lates."

Jeff winced at _lates_. The three greeting thing he could handle, the made up greetings were another story. Vaughn disappeared among the boats. Jeff knew he lived in one of them, though he never bothered to figure out which one. He always just assumed it would be the dirtiest one around, if he needed to find it.

Annie gave Vaughn a little wave as he walked away.

"What are you doing?" Jeff asked in annoyance.

Annie held her hands, and the drugs, behind her back, self-consciously. "Nothing," She said quickly.

Jeff decided to ignore whatever it was that was happening with her and their dirty supply hippie, and just go back to the mansion.

Whatever. He didn't care if Annie was interested in Vaughn, it was just inconvenient was all. This was business, and the first rule of business was don't mix it with pleasure. Ever. Especially with the _Vaughn_s of the system. It was gross, and inappropriate, and inconvenient. And really that was all there was to it.

Vaughn just wasn't Annie's type. She could do better. Not that Jeff cared.

His mood was considerably darker for the rest of the day, though. He may have taken a sinister pleasure in killing one of their less helpful workers, later that day, but he refused to acknowledge that it had anything to do with Annie, or the fact that he was picturing Vaughn while he did it.

XXX

Jeff continued to take her out on _business meetings_. They never escalated to more than just beating the poor person up. Jeff didn't kill anyone in front of her, and Annie was afraid to ask, so they continued to stick to the same routine.

He let her run most of the drug parts of things, now. She had a natural talent for it. She bought the drugs from Vaughn, and sold them to clients, and had no trouble except for one kid who liked to be lazy with his cash. She always managed to wrangle the money out of him though. She only ever had to answer to Jeff when giving him his cut of the profits, which wasn't a regular thing, so she could go weeks without paying him up. She didn't think he noticed, much. If he did, he'd probably say something.

He continued to slowly teach her about their operation. He let her go with Abed to collect money and information from the nieghbourhoods up north. He let her hang around Troy as he beat the crap out of guys who tried whistle-blowing. He let her tag along for all his business that didn't involve anyone getting killed.

She wondered if this was his weird way of trying to protect her, but he knew more about this sort of stuff than she did, and if he said she wasn't ready, than she wasn't ready.

A month later, he took her to the shooting range. It was an outside shooting range, and it was December so it was all half covered in snow. Apparently it belonged to Greendale PD, but of course, Pierce had people who let them in whenever they needed it.

Jeff didn't give Annie her own gun. He lent her one of the police ones while they were there, and didn't offer her his own, even though it was obviously much better. Jeff's gun, like his scotch, was one of those things that if anybody else touched it, he would make the earth swallow them whole. And probably laugh while doing it.

"Edison, don't hold the gun like it's a hairbrush. It's a weapon, and you can take some one's eye out like that," Jeff said, pushing her arm so she wasn't aiming at her feet anymore. The safety was on, and it wasn't loaded yet, but she figured it wasn't like they could kid around with this. A gun wasn't a toy, even in the crime world.

"Okay," Jeff said. He was standing beside her with earmuffs at his side, and glasses over his eyes. It made him look kind of funny, considering he was usually so well put together. Today, he'd gone casual, with just a sweaters and slacks under his winter coat.

"This model is pretty basic. It's one of the first ones, I used. Now, Troy said he taught you to load bullets already, so ..."

Annie loaded up the gun with ease. She'd practiced for a while, while Troy played Guitar Hero, because she'd wanted to impress Jeff. He raised an eyebrow at her when she smiled up at him, clearly enjoying this side of her.

"Okay," He said slowly. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Loading the gun's only half the process."

He stepped up closer to her, so that he was right in her personal space. He wrapped his hand around hers and the trigger, and raised her arm up, pointing it at the target.

"You need to find a position that's comfortable for you," He said. "But you also have to be able to aim properly, from whatever position that is," He explained.

His breath was in her ear, and it fogged up between them from the coldness in the air. Annie tried not to let it get to her, but it was making her anxious. She could feel her neck flushing, and her cheeks would be going pink soon, if the cold hadn't already done that for her. She tried not to think about how out of place she was, wearing her puffy blue coat, and her short skirt, here at a shooting range, with one of Greendale's most ruthless murderers.

"You aim, using that little nob thing at the front," He said, flicking the safety off, and lining the aim with his eye-line. He gave her an encouraging smile so she would do the same.

"It looked blurry," Annie said, as she did as she was told, lining the aim with the target's chest.

"That's good," Jeff told her, taking a step back to let her shoot.

She tried not to feel the absence of his warmth, but it was freezing outside, so it was a hard task.

"Whenever you're ready, you can fire," He said, putting the earmuffs on.

"Okay," Annie whispered to herself. "You can do this, Annie. Focus."

She took a breath to calm her nerves, then pressed her finger on the trigger.

The pulse of the shot, made her jerk backward slightly. Jeff put a hand on her back to steady her and smiled.

The shot had been loud, especially in the silence of the snow. Annie hadn't expected it to be so strong, and her hands were shaking a little from the impact. She was embarrassed that she wasn't taking this as well as she wanted to, but Jeff smiled down at her, proudly.

"That was pretty good," He said.

"It was?"

He nodded.

"But my hands are shaking."

Jeff shrugged. "You're just not used to it yet."

Annie beamed. He said yet, which meant she'd have plenty of time to get used to it. Annie was a determined person. When she did something, she did it well, and shooting was going to be no exception.

"Wanna try again?" Jeff asked.

She nodded eagerly.

"Maybe you'll hit something this time," He said, taking the step back again.

"I didn't hit anything?" Annie asked in disappointment.

Jeff laughed. "Not even close. But like I said, you'll get there."

Annie sighed, and leveled the gun up with her eyes again. She was definitely gonna get there. She found there was nothing she wanted more.

Except for maybe Jeff to step in close with her again, but she tried not to think about that.

XXX

Laybourne still hadn't tried to get back at them for the factory. Abed kept reassuring Jeff that that was a good thing. It probably meant Laybourne was scared. Jeff wanted to agree, but something told him it would be letting his guard down. Laybourne was stronger than that. He wouldn't just sit by while thousands of dollars worth of drugs went up in flames.

He was gonna get them back, Jeff knew it. He just didn't know how, and that scared him the most.

If Pierce had any ideas, he wasn't gonna share them.

Since Jeff went against him, Pierce had been a little more secretive. He still gave Jeff orders, and shared more with him than anyone else, but Jeff could see the suspicion in his eye. He didn't want to trust Jeff anymore.

Jeff was okay with that though. He'd started a little side project of his own, and if everything went according to plan, he wouldn't need Pierce anymore by the time elections rolled around.

He had Abed on his side, and that was already Pierce's two best men gone. Troy would go where Abed followed, and Shirley preferred Jeff to Pierce. Britta had an irrational fear of Pierce, but if anything that would probably benefit Jeff. Jeff had all of Pierce's men in his pocket, he knew more about this operation than Pierce did. All he needed was the money to run it, and if Abed kept skimming a little extra from the northern neighbourhoods without getting caught, he'd have that in no time.

Jeff was lucky to have Abed. He was fiercely loyal, and he understood this business the way Jeff did. He knew Jeff could do this better than Pierce, and he had an undying faith in Jeff and his talents. Together, he and Abed would run a master operation, bigger and better than Pierce and Laybourne put together.

All he needed to do was put an end to this silly war that didn't seem to end.

Since Annie was now taking care of most of the drug business, he had a lot less work to do. He could focus on other parts of the operation, like cheap civilians. He started taking a few cases at the firm, for some extra cash. He didn't technically work for the firm, but he needed somewhere to say he practiced, in case Pierce got in trouble, and enough of them owed him favours to let him pretend he was a one of them. Besides, Jeff liked being a lawyer. He was good at it, and the rules were a lot more straight-forward than they were with mobsters. It relaxed him.

These days, it was the only thing that relaxed him. That, and Annie's lessons. It was odd, doing something for somebody without getting anything back. It wasn't something that happened often, in the universe that Jeff lived in. Somehow, the way Annie smiled at him was enough.

He was aware that maybe he was growing a little too fond of her, and not in any way he'd felt before. Jeff had had plenty of lady-friends before. They came and went, always leggy and beautiful at the beginning, and bitter and vicious by the end. None of them were ever serious, and honestly, Jeff couldn't say he'd ever been in love. The way he operated with women was simple. Sleep with whichever one made his skin tingle, until he got bored. It had worked for him, but now Annie was changing everything.

The way Jeff felt about Annie, was unique. He wanted to protect her, but he also wanted to watch her tear the world apart, because he knew she could. He wanted to see every side of her: The crazy, and the innocent. He wanted to kiss her gently, and run his hands through her soft hair, but also ravish her and have wild sex.

He wasn't quite sure how he felt about any of this. Mostly, he just buried it all. But it wasn't gonna stay buried for long, that was for sure. Every time they had another lesson, Jeff found some excuse to just stand close to her, and smell her lavender shampoo. It was stupid, obviously, but it was also becoming a bit of a habit. A habit he didn't know how to break.

Annie was gonna be trouble for him. Feelings were a dangerous thing in the life they lived, especially in Jeff's position. His lifestyle didn't lave room for emotions, and yet, Annie had clawed her way into his mind, and wasn't about to get kicked out any time soon.

Truth be told, he didn't want her out.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N - Sorry this took a while. I've been busy with school and such._

* * *

><p>Annie liked Vaughn. He was nice, and he complimented her in the weirdest ways, but it still made her feel good about herself. Everyone in the group had met Vaughn one time or another. Apparently, he'd dated Britta for a while. And once when he tried to scam them Shirley dealt with him. From what Troy told her, it was pretty ugly. When Annie asked Shirley about it, the woman giggled at the memory.<p>

They were all crazy in this mansion.

Annie had no trouble with Vaughn. He liked her just as much as she liked him. Even more, actually. Annie knew she could trust him enough, and he was too afraid of Jeff to screw her over. Or at least that was what she thought.

She should have seen the signs when she showed up. It was different. For starters, Vaughn was actually wearing a hoodie when she showed up. Also, he seemed kind of fidgety, which was unusual considering how relaxed he was most of the time. Annie should have seen these things for what they were, instead of just assuming Vaughn was having an off day. People didn't have off days in the drug business. They were either fine or they weren't, and Vaughn wasn't.

"I need extra," Vaughn said quietly when she handed him the money.

"What are you talking about? That's the same price as always."

Vaughn gulped. "Well the price has gone up. I want an extra five hundred."

Annie laughed like she thought he was joking. "Vaughn, I have the usual two thousand and that's it. Now give me the drugs."

Vaughn held out a hand to take the money from her. Annie reached out to hand him the envelope filled with cash, but Vaughn grabbed her wrist and the last second and pulled her close. He pulled a knife from his hoodie pocket and held it up to her neck.

"I don't want to hurt you. Just give me the extra five hundred," Vaughn said.

Annie was scared. She could feel the edge of the knife against her throat. She was still pretty young. Most of her accomplishments included straight As in school, and two very successful drug businesses. She'd only ever had one _gay_ boyfriend, and the guy she currently had feelings for was an unhappy consigliere who drank too much scotch and didn't sleep enough. Those were the only thoughts running through her mind. That, and she needed to get the hell out of there.

"Vaughn, please," She begged.

"I don't want to hurt you," He repeated, tightening his grip on the knife. He looked scared too, like he didn't really want to do this.

Annie took a breath, swallowing down her tears, and kneed him right in his privates. Vaughn jerked back in pain, slicing her shoulder accidentally.

Annie didn't feel it though. She was too focused on running back to her car. Vaughn followed her quickly, making a grab for her arm. She half-punched him in the face and kicked his shin. He fell back, and Annie sprinted to her crappy car.

She must have hit a world record for starting a car quickly, and she drove out of there without a second glance. She didn't know if Vaughn had a car. She didn't even know if he had given up on chasing her or not, she just drove furiously through the streets of Greendale.

She was shaking by the time she walked through the Hawthorne mansion. She could feel the pain in her arm now, and there was blood leaking all the way down to her fingertips.

"Hello?" She called out, but nobody answered her.

Troy and Abed had gone out for the night to catch the premier of the new Kickpuncher movie. She remembered them mentioning it earlier. Britta was god knows where most of the time, and Shirley had moved back into her home as soon as she had healed.

She didn't know if Jeff was around. His business usually took on random hours of the day.

"Hello?" She tried again, going halfway up the stairs.

"Annie?" Jeff's voice called from the kitchen. Annie ran down to him, holding her arm so he wouldn't see how badly she'd screwed up. It didn't make much of a difference. Her sleeve was stained completely red.

As soon as Jeff saw her, a dark look flashed across his features. "What happened?" He asked calmly.

"Vaughn- he tried-" Annie stuttered, unable to find the words. She was mad at Vaughn. Mad at him for screwing up her business. Mad at him for making her look like a scared, little girl in front of Jeff.

Jeff seemed equally pissed at the smelly hippie. He walked over to her, and put a comforting hand on her back, leading her toward the kitchen. He sat her at the table, and told her to relax, before rooting through a cupboard for the first aid kit.

"I'm sorry, Jeff," Annie said quietly when he took the seat next to her.

Jeff didn't reply. Instead, he gently removed her sweater, glancing at her face every few seconds to make sure it wasn't hurting her. He wiped up most of the blood with a towel, then cleaned the cut. The stuff he used stung a bit, but he was trying to make it as painless as possible for her. Every time she made a noise of pain, he'd stop and give her three seconds to relax again.

He'd obviously done this before. Annie wondered how many times, and who, and why. Abed had shown her a scar on his stomach once from a bad deal. He said Jeff had cleaned it up for him, but Annie had found that hard to believe at the time. Usually, Jeff was too busy for this sort of thing, and whenever anyone got injured he sent them to Nurse Jackie.

"It's not too deep so you won't be needing stitches," Jeff said gently. He picked up a band aid, cutting it the right size, and pressing it lightly over the cut. He gave her a small smile when he finished. "So what happened?"

"Vaughn wanted an extra five hundred," Annie said. "When I didn't give it to him, he pulled out a knife."

Jeff nodded in understanding.

"It was my fault. I should have seen something was off."

Jeff shook his head, leaning in closer to her. "No, Annie, it wasn't. Vaughn's the one to blame here." He sat back with an angry expression now. "I'll deal with him."

"I want to come," Annie said quickly. "When you … y'know. I want to be there."

Jeff looked like he wanted to protest, but decided against it. He nodded curtly, and gave her back her bloodstained sweater. "Okay," He said quietly and stood up.

"Send him a text. Tell him you'll meet him tomorrow with the extra cash."

"Okay," Annie said.

Jeff cocked his head at her curiously. "If he had a knife, how did you escape?"

Annie shrugged, but winced halfway, finding that it hurt now. "I kicked him in the genitals."

Jeff laughed, but it wasn't a mean one. He gave her an affectionate smile. "I always knew you were a tough one."

XXX

It really was a testament to how dumb Vaughn was, that he actually showed up. Anyone with half a brain would know that nothing good could come of meeting with the drug dealer you tried to stab. Then again, Vaughn probably didn't realize how important Annie was. Jeff was baffled by it too, sometimes. He was mostly used to it though, which wasn't a good thing, as he had to continuously remind himself.

Vaughn was standing in the usual spot, wearing a stupid looking hoodie, that no doubt was where he hid the knife. Vaughn didn't wear clothes if he could help it.

When he noticed Jeff walking in front of Annie he got ready to flee, but Jeff was too fast for him. He whipped out his gun at lightning speed, aiming it right at Vaughn's face.

"Don't even," He warned, smirk playing on his lips. He wasn't gonna admit it, but he was far too happy to have a valid excuse for shooting Vaughn.

Vaughn froze like a deer in the headlights as Jeff and Annie walked closer and closer. Jeff's gun didn't waver.

"I told you not to try anything just because I was gone," Jeff said.

Annie trailed behind him, glaring intensely at Vaughn.

"I wasn't- " Vaughn began but Jeff stepped closer to shut him up.

"See the problem with that argument is I don't care," Jeff said. "You went after some one I care about, and now I'm going after you. Simple, so even _you_ can understand it."

"I didn't -"

"No, you didn't," Jeff finished for him. He pressed the gun to Vaughn's forehead, savouring the way nervous sweat fell from Vaughn's temple.

"Your knife," Jeff demanded. Vaughn pulled it out of his pocket and held it out to him. Jeff took it and gave it to Annie to hold. He lowered his gun and smiled at Vaughn, giving him that false sense of getting away with it. When Vaughn finally smiled back, Jeff smacked him across the face with the gun.

Vaughn fell to the boards of the dock, crying out in pain. Jeff was rather unimpressed by him. He really was the lamest type of person to threaten.

"Please," Vaughn begged.

"Shut up, Vaughn," Jeff spat. Vaughn shrunk in on himself, but Jeff wasn't having it. He pulled him by the collar and sent a knee into his stomach, knocking the air out of him. Jeff dropped him back to the floor and shook his head at the pathetic mess that was Vaughn Miller.

"What do you want from me?" Vaughn croaked.

"I want you to apologize," Jeff ordered.

"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" Vaughn cried. He seemed so small now. Almost like a child. The almost was the difference between Jeff killing him or not.

Jeff sent a satisfied smile to Annie, before facing Vaughn's whimpering frame again.

"Great. But now you're gonna have to make it up to me for going against your word," Jeff said.

"Anything! I'll do anything."

Jeff rolled his eyes.

"I don't want you to _do_ anything, Vaughn. In fact, what I want is for you to not do anything. Don't talk, don't move, don't breathe. Just … _don't._"

Vaughn let out a shuddered breath. "No, please. I'll do better. Please!"

"Stand up, Vaughn." Jeff instructed.

Vaughn did as he was told.

Jeff gave him a once over, rolling his eyes at the hippie's attire.

"You know, I had half the mind to let you live tonight," Jeff said. Vaughn smiled but Jeff shook his head at him.

"I would have, honestly. But you just had to wear those ridiculous douchebag sandals."

Vaughn gulped. It was the last thing he did before Jeff raised his gun and sent three shots right into his chest.

He fell backwards, blood pooling around him and dripping off the dock, into the sea.

Jeff turned to face Annie, who was still holding the knife tightly in her hand.

"You okay?" He asked.

Annie looked shell-shocked. He understood. He'd reacted the exact same the first time he'd watched somebody get killed. Her eyes were wide and bright with fear and surprise. It didn't matter whether you expected it or not, there was always that look of surprise the first time around.

She nodded absently.

Jeff put the gun back in his holster and walked up to her. She flinched slightly before realizing that Jeff was on her side, and relaxing a little.

"It's strange, I know," Jeff admitted. "Do you want me to take that?" He asked, nodding to the knife.

Annie shook her head, staring down at the weapon with an unreadable expression. "No. I want to keep it."

Jeff nodded. "Okay."

He put an arm on her back gently, not wanting to frighten her again, and began to pull her back to his car.

"Shouldn't we clean that up?" Annie asked.

"Shirley will take care of it," Jeff assured her, rubbing light circles on her back with his thumb.

The drive back to the mansion was silent. Annie stared out the window, while Jeff drove, occasionally glancing at her direction.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked her, while they were stopped at some lights.

Annie swallowed and nodded silently.

"You can stay at the mansion for the night, if you want," He said. "Or not," He added after it occurred to him that maybe she wouldn't want to be around him after what happened.

"Okay," She said. He wasn't sure what she was saying okay to, but took it anyway. At least she was talking again.

XXX

The thing was, Annie knew Jeff had killed people. He'd flat out admitted that he'd gotten rid of Starburns for her. But there was a giant difference between knowing some one was a murderer, and seeing some one being a murderer.

She was afraid. Not of Jeff, but that was what was getting to her. She was afraid, about how not afraid of Jeff she was. She'd watched him unflinchingly fire three bullets into Vaughn's guts, and she wasn't afraid. Instead, she was almost in awe of him. She wanted to help. She wanted to be able to do what he did. She wanted to kill people without even a blink and be able to turn around and smile when it was all over. That was what scared her the most.

She didn't stay at the Hawthorne mansion. In fact, she completely avoided going back there for the entire week. Jeff probably thought she was scared of him now, and brushing up on her morals or something like that. She wanted to let him know she wasn't, but then again, he hadn't called to ask, and no cops had shown up at his door, so he must know she hadn't blabbed to anyone.

Instead, Annie dove into her dealing. Despite the misunderstandings with Vaughn, she still had enough product left over to last another week or so. She carried on as always, selling to the usuals with a smile on her face, and collecting money whenever was needed.

She was still having problems with that one student. Magnitude was his nickname. He was a party sort of guy, always getting little highs off Annie whenever there was news about a rager going on on campus. He was a nice guy, and a little hyper-active. His only fault seemed to be that he never had money to pay for the drugs. Annie let him get away with it for the first two weeks, when he promised to have it to her as soon as possible. She was reasonable enough, and it wasn't like she needed the money. But by week three, she'd had enough.

There was not having the money, and then there was just refusing to pay, and Magnitude was definitely the latter.

Annie was good at dealing with people who didn't pay. Sometimes people thought they could scam her because she looked so innocent, but more often than not Annie showed up at their door with her formidable face on, and they realized they couldn't get away that easy. She never had to resort to actual physical violence, although she did have to mace a guy once.

Still, as she left her dorm room this time around, something made her drag along Vaughn's knife. She'd kept the knife close to her at all times, although she couldn't quite explain why. It gave her a thrill, carrying around something that belonged to the guy she watched get shot to death, even if she wasn't the one doing the shooting. Plus, Jeff refused to give her a gun, and after what happened with Vaughn, it was obvious that she'd need something a little stronger than pepper-spray.

She knocked on Magnitude's door loudly, calling his name out.

"Pop! Pop!" He greeted her, with a grin.

"I need my money," Annie told him, not in the mood for any of his nonsense. He'd dragged this out long enough, and she needed all her money soon because she no longer had a supplier.

"Yeah, about that," Magnitude said. "I don't quite have it right now, but -"

"Cut the crap, Magnitude! It's been three weeks, and you still haven't paid!" Annie exclaimed. "Unless you've spent the last three weeks not buying lunch, and not paying for gas for your car, I am not leaving here until you give me what you owe me," She said, pushing past him and sitting herself stubbornly on his bed.

Magnitude smiled. "Look, I'll get it to you as soon as I can, but right now -"

"Right now's the only time I'll take it," Annie said.

Magnitude finally dropped his smile, and glared at her.

"Well, I don't have the money," He told her. "So what?"

Annie stood up, and marched across the room so that they were face to face. He was taller than her by a few inches, which still made him pretty short, but she had to look up at him anyway. She gave him her best formidable face, making sure he knew just how serious she was about this. He didn't look impressed.

"You gonna glare at me all day?" He shoved Annie away by her shoulders.

Annie sighed impatiently and pulled out Vaughn's knife. "No, I'm going to take what's owed to me, whether you decide to give it or not."

His eyes flashed with fear, but he didn't seem to think she'd do it. Annie didn't think she'd do it either. Or maybe she would. Her head was full of conflicting thoughts. She wanted to do it. A deep, primal part of her, really wanted to just jam the knife into him. Her old self was telling her to stop, but with every passing day, her old self seemed to fade a little more from her memory.

"You're not gonna stab me, Annie."

"Try me," Annie said with determination.

Magnitude laughed. He reached out a hand to take the knife from her. "Why don't you just stop -" But before he could reach it Annie sliced his wrist.

He cried out in surprise, and Annie shoved him against the door, holding the knife up to his face.

"I want my money, Magnitude," She said quietly.

Magnitude sneered at her. "I'm not afraid of you. You're just a little girl. You get nothing."

"Oh yeah?" Annie asked. She brought the knife down the space between them, and lunged it into his stomach. Magnitude did a little more than just cry out this time around.

"Well?" Annie asked.

"What are you gonna do, kill me?" His voice was strained.

Annie glared at him. He was too cocky for his own good. She leaned forward, so that there was barely any space left between their faces.

"If you ask nicely, I just might."

Magnitude spat in her face.

Annie dug the knife deeper, and then pushed it all the way down, slicing his stomach open. Magnitude screamed. Then his eyes rolled back into his head and his body went limp against her.

Annie dropped him to the floor, eyes widening when she realized what she had done. She'd killed some one. She'd actually ended somebody's life. On purpose.

She panicked for a brief second, torn between crying and running away. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and counted to ten. She had to be rational about this.

First of all, she couldn't do this alone. She needed Jeff, and Troy, and everyone on the team. She'd seen enough CSI to know she needed to get rid of the body, and hide any evidence.

Her first move she decided, was going to the Hawthorne mansion and getting some assistance. She couldn't leave like this though. She had Magnitude's blood all over her. She'd look extremely guilty.

She took her sweater and shirt off, throwing on a t-shirt that Magnitude had left lying around in his room. There were a few splatters on her tights, which she ripped off along with her skirt, throwing on Magnitude's sweatpants instead. She threw on a Greendale Community College sweater, just to be sure.

She checked herself over in Magnitude's mirror. She looked pale, and her hands were shaking, but other than that she looked pretty normal. No one would ever suspect her of slicing some one open. At least she hoped not.

After that she took Magnitude's key from the pocket of his dead body, and locked the door behind her as she ran down the hall. She probably should have hid him somewhere, but she couldn't exactly bring him anywhere without being noticed. He was pretty popular around campus. Not to mention some one would see if she was dragging a dead body along behind her.

Annie tried to get into her car in the parking lot, but her hands were shaking too much for her to get the key in the ignition. She decided to just walk, since it was only ten minutes away. She made it halfway before she started to feel nauseous, and ended up throwing up her breakfast, lunch, and dinner in an alleyway.

She took a few calming breaths, and spat out any leftover taste of bile from her mouth, before continuing on.

The gate was still broken, therefore still letting anyone who wanted to, just walk right in.

She didn't bother ringing the bell when she got there, since she'd long passed that point of trust.

Jeff was in the living room with Abed. He was pinching the bridge of his nose, in that way of his whenever he had a stress headache. He was nodding along while Abed passed a bunch of files to him silently. Abed had a worried expression, and he looked like he was staying silent so Jeff wouldn't snap at him, rather than because it was his weird Abed thing.

"Jeff," Annie said, letting out a shaky breath. Her voice sounded small, though she didn't feel frightened. She felt powerful, and she didn't quite know how to handle it.

"Not now, Annie," Jeff said without looking up. "Are you sure Shirley can't do anything about this?" He asked Abed, who shook his head in reply. Jeff sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "This cannot be happening," He whispered to himself in frustration.

Annie decided to maybe go try and find Britta or Troy and get them to help instead, but Abed stopped her.

"What happened?" He asked.

"What?"

"You look a little off," Abed noted.

Jeff finally looked up. A small crease appeared between his brows. "Why are you wearing that?"

Annie opened her mouth to answer, but Jeff shook his head before she could get a word out.

"Wait, doesn't matter. I have to deal with this thing for Troy."

"What happened to Troy?" Annie asked, taking tentative steps closer.

"He's in prison. Laybourne planted evidence on him to get us back for the factory," Jeff said, flicking through the pages that were laid out on the table. "Assault and reckless endangerment?" He read off the page, and frowned at Abed again. "Who gave the testimony?"

"I'm still working on that," Abed said. "It was anonymous, but I think it was definitely one of his capos; Maybe even his underboss."

"Pelton? Doesn't seem likely," Jeff said.

"You haven't seen the same side of him that I have," Abed said. "He's unstable, and Laybourne knows exactly how to play him to get what he wants."

"Jeff, I _really_ need to talk to you," Annie repeated, more demanding this time.

Jeff sighed. "Annie, I'm sort of in the middle of something important right now," He groaned.

Annie stuck her nose in the air. "Fine," She said in a petulant voice. "Then I guess it won't matter that I just killed some one."

Abed raised his eyebrows at her and Jeff blinked like a fish.

"I'm sorry?" He asked, in a gruff voice.

"I realize you're busy right now," Annie said, ignoring him. "But I have no idea how to dispose of a body."

Jeff gaped at her for a second, before clearing his throat and collecting himself.

"I think it's about time you moved into the mansion."


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N - Sorry this took longer than usual. I hit a minor writer's block and then I started having internet problems. Have some UST to make up for it. XD_

* * *

><p>Annie took Jeff to see Magnitude's body so they could figure out where to go from there. Abed came along because he was curious, and managed to rope Britta along because she thought it was a practical joke, and wanted to see for herself.<p>

Annie was adamant at first, seeing as the four of them all walking into Magnitude's dorm room together would probably look really fishy, but Jeff had a stony expression the entire time they were getting ready to leave, so she decided it would be better to bring them, in case he decided to yell at her or something.

Jeff didn't yell. He was eerily calm. Annie didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

He barely blinked when she brought him into Magnitude's room. In fact, none of them did. They'd probably all seen enough dead bodies that this was as natural to them as staring at a cup of coffee.

"What happened?" Britta asked, because everyone else was being extremely quiet.

"I don't know, I just ..." Annie trailed off.

"Don't worry," Jeff told her. "We can take care of this."

He turned to face them wearing his game face. It was the same look he wore during their week of revenge when they planned the attack on the factory. He was in the zone now, and he was going to save Annie's skin.

"Annie, you and Britta go find some bleach for the floor and anything else that might have your DNA on it. I want you to clean this room, and burn those clothes," He said calmly, nodding to the Greendale sweatshirt she was wearing.

"What about the body?" She asked.

"Just get the bleach," He said. "Consider the body taken care of."

Annie nodded and led Britta to the nearest supply closet. Britta kept watching her suspiciously as they walked, but Annie didn't say anything to her about it. Annie figured, being a part of Greendale's organized crime syndicate and all that, Britta had probably killed a few people in her time, so it obviously wasn't about that. That meant it was about something else, and Annie had a feeling she knew what, she just didn't think it would be a good idea to address it. Especially now of all times.

"What's he gonna do with the body?" Annie asked as she and Britta poured all they bleach they could into a bucket with some water.

"Probably throw it in a lake or something." Britta shrugged. "That's usually where they end up."

Annie nodded. "Swimming with the fishes, right?"

Britta frowned.

"It's just something Abed said once. I think it's a movie reference."

"I know what it is," Britta told her calmly, still with that frown.

Annie raised her eyebrows but kept her mouth shut. She'd never held a full conversation with Britta before. Whenever she saw Britta she was usually hanging out with Troy and Abed, or having one of her lessons with Jeff. She didn't know much about the woman except that she was an expert with explosives, and that she had a fondness for leather jackets. Annie knew she had a purpose on the team, she'd just never really seen it.

Britta seemed to notice how anti-social she was being, because she shook her head and her expression softened.

"I'm sorry if I'm being a bitch to you."

"No, you're no -"

"Annie, cut the crap," She said with a skeptical look. "Truth is, I'm a defensive person. I don't trust people easily, and you. I barely understand you, so I find it hard to trust you."

"Well that makes sense," Annie said with a tiny smile. "I always just assumed it was because of Jeff."

Britta laughed. "_Him?_ Really?" She shook her head like Annie was an amusing child, and picked up two sponges and some rubber gloves. "Annie, I'm gonna do you a favour and tell you to not even bother going there."

"I wasn't -" Annie began, but Britta interrupted her.

"He's trouble, even in our world. It may seem like he's interested, but Jeff doesn't care about anything as much as he cares about what he does. It's all business with him, trust me."

Annie picked up the bucket and frowned. "Sure, he's _focused_, but he's been nice to me."

"Only because he hasn't slept with you yet," Britta said. "Trust me, as soon as he gets what he wants, he'll have no interest in you anymore. It'll be all about being the best in the business again. But I'm not telling you what to do. If you wanna flutter your eyelashes at him, then go ahead."

Annie didn't reply to that. She didn't know how. Britta was right. She knew all the reasons why Annie wanted Jeff. He was interesting and woven in secrets. Annie wanted to unravel him. She wanted to just dig, and dig, until she found all his deepest insecurities. She wanted to know what it was that made that psychopathic man tick.

"Besides," Britta began, as they walked back to Magnitude's. "I thought you were after Troy."

"I think Troy only has strong feelings for Abed and his fists."

Britta huffed out an amused chuckle. "And yet Jeff you have hope for."

XXX

Jeff and Abed did with Magnitude's body, what they did with everyone's body. They tied it to a cement brick, brought it out to the nearest body of water, and let go, watching it sinking down with all the other victims of the Hawthorne Commission. It was habit to them, like brushing their teeth every night.

"What are you thinking?" Abed asked Jeff on the drive back.

"I thought you had mind-reading abilities," Jeff quipped.

Honestly, he had no idea. His mind was a muddled mess of panic and confusion, and a hint of admiration, but he wasn't ready to touch on that yet.

"Annie's really coming into her own," Abed noted, after Jeff was silent for too long. "I knew she would."

"Is that your weird Abed way of saying _I told you so_?"

Abed shrugged. "I did though. And I was right. She's exactly what we were missing."

Jeff just grunted noncommittally.

"Change is coming, Jeff. And she's gonna help."

"Gee, Abed, if you like her so much why don't you just marry her?" Jeff asked sarcastically.

"Because you'd kill me, obviously," Abed said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Obviously," Jeff repeated. He met Abed's eyes and they shared a look of mutual understanding.

He was right of course. (Not about the killing thing). Change was coming, Jeff was going to make sure of it. And Annie – innocent yet sinister Annie – was the key. She was what Jeff needed to deal with all these messes Laybourne was causing. Hell, she was what he needed to deal with Pierce too.

If Jeff trained her right, she could become unstoppable. No, she _would_ be; there was no doubt about it

Annie was what Jeff needed for everything to work itself out, and the thought of that gave him a thrill he couldn't quite explain. All he knew was he couldn't get enough.

XXX

Annie was sitting at the kitchen table in the Hawthorne mansion, waiting for Jeff and Abed to get back. She'd taken the initiative and packed up all her stuff, and brought it with her. She didn't even have that much anyway. Even with all her drug money, Annie never cared much for material things. She no longer had any plans to go to college, so now the money was just there.

She tapped her nails against the kitchen table, impatiently. Britta had ditched her as soon as they'd gotten back, complaining about wanting to shower, and how cleaning up blood should be a Commission soldier's job. Now, Annie was trying to figure out if Jeff's earlier silence was a good thing or a bad thing.

The longer she stewed in her thoughts, the less sense they made.

He'd asked her to move in, so that had to be good. People only moved in if they were moving up on the chain of command. And he'd helped her get rid of Magnitude's body, so obviously he was still on her side. She just wished she had a clearer picture of where he stood.

She didn't mean for this to happen. She didn't regret it either. She wanted to do it, and she'd do it again. She just didn't want him to stop trusting her over something like this.

She heard the front door open, and Jeff calling her name.

"In here," She called back.

Jeff walked in with an unreadable expression. There was a heavy silence, and Annie could hear every step Abed took up the stairs.

Jeff didn't acknowledge her. Instead, he went for his scotch and two clean glasses. He placed them on the table, and sat across from her, linking his fingers together and wearing what Annie had come to recognize as his _business_ face. Maybe Britta had a point.

"So let's talk about tonight," He said.

Annie's heart started to race. What if he was mad at her? What if he was gonna punish her the same way he'd punished all those other people. He'd let her watch as he tortured them for money, or information, or even pleasure sometimes. Who knew what he'd do to her if he was mad.

"Don't you have to sort out Troy's problem?" Annie asked.

"Troy's been in prison before. He knows how to work the system. You, however, haven't murdered before as far as I know. So let's talk," Jeff said patiently.

"I'm not sorry," Annie said. She wasn't, and she wanted him to know. She found herself wanting to tell him everything she felt. She leaned closer, and Jeff began to pour the scotch, avoiding her eyes.

"I wanted to do it," Annie admitted. "I don't know why, I just …"

"Felt a thrill," Jeff supplied for her.

"Exactly," Annie said.

Jeff gave her a soft smile. "You don't need to explain yourself to me, I know what it feels like to kill," He told her. He pushed one of the glasses of scotch towards her, and leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of his own. "What I want to know," He said, after a beat, "is what you think should happen next."

"What do you mean?" Annie asked cautiously.

"You're a fantastic drug-dealer, Annie, but I'm thinking drugs is too tame a business for some one like you," He said. He looked down at his empty glass. "So what now?"

"I don't know," Annie told him honestly.

Jeff met her eyes, and seemed to be thinking carefully about something. Then his face changed completely from a contemplative look to an animated one. He leaned forward setting his glass down, and smirking at her. His eyes shone intensely, full of drive.

"Well, Troy's gone, and that left quite a void on our team."

Annie shook her head. "I don't want Troy's job. All he does is collect money, I can do more," She said. If she was gonna move up, she wanted it to be something worthwhile. Troy was a collector, and he was good at it. Annie wasn't gonna take that away from him. His job wasn't what she was.

"I know," Jeff told her earnestly. "I have big things in mind for you, you just need some more experience first."

"Experience?"

"Annie," Jeff began excitedly, not really listening to her. "Things are going to get so much better around here. I have a plan, I know how to do things, and if it works, we could rule Greendale. And _you_ are exactly what that plan needs. You can kill, that much is obvious, now all I need to do is teach you how to do it well. You and me, we'd be invincible together."

Annie felt herself flush from the mountain of compliments Jeff had just laid on her. "What are you saying?" She asked.

Jeff grinned. "I'm saying you and I are gonna work on those skills of yours until you become great, and then we're gonna take this town. You, me, Abed, and anyone else who wants to help." He reached out, grabbing her hands in giddiness, holding on tightly so she'd see just how serious he was.

"All I need is for you to say yes," He said.

"Yes," Annie told him, almost immediately. She didn't care what she'd have to do. Whatever it was, she'd do it. Whatever this was that Jeff was trying to do was going to be incredible. She could tell from the look in his eye. So whatever it was … _yes. _The answer would always be yes.

Jeff grinned like a child.

Annie's heart was going so fast she almost thought she was having a heart attack.

They were so close. Jeff's hands were still wrapped around hers, letting out waves of heat. Annie could smell his cologne, and see every tiny detail of his face. She felt exhilarated.

She glanced down at their hands, an back to Jeff's eyes. Jeff didn't miss a beat of it, and swallowed, making his Adam's apple bob up and down. His eyes flicked to her lips briefly.

_Oh_, Annie thought. _Okay_.

Jeff was very, very close. They were both leaning in; Their lips barely an inch apart, and then –

Jeff's phone beeped.

He pulled away, making a face like the sound of it physically pained him. Annie pulled her hands away, placing them on her lap, as Jeff checked his phone, wearing his usual grumpy frown.

"Pierce," was all he said, with a long-suffering sigh.

Annie simply nodded.

Jeff gave her an apologetic look and nodded to the glass of scotch she still hasn't touched. "You should finish that. It's quality stuff."

He stood up slowly, towering over her the way he always did, and smiled. "You can move your things into the spare room next to Abed and Troy's. I'll see you tomorrow."

And with a final nod – the business kind, this time – he left.

XXX

"I'm guessing you've heard about Troy," Jeff said as he walked into Pierce's office. This was a pointless meeting. Pierce only called him in here because Troy was practically his pride and joy. Pierce favoured Troy over everyone, it was evident in the way he hired him when Troy still had no experience.

The only reason Jeff was in the room right now, was because technically this had happened under his watch, and now Pierce wanted to yell at him for it.

"What the hell happened?" Pierce snapped. "No, wait. Let _me_ tell you what happened. You played a stupid revenge trick on Laybourne, you blew up his factory, and now," Pierce's arms flailed wildly. "Now, he's going after people that actually matter!"

He sighed and buried his face in his hand. "I told you. _I told you_ not to retaliate. Go for Slater. Make things simple; Don't let it escalate. That's what I told you."

Jeff frowned, and sat himself in the chair in front of Pierce's desk. "You never told me any of that," He bit out. "In fact, I'm surprised you even noticed what happened to Troy, considering how out of touch you've been with your own operation lately."

Pierce's head snapped back up, and he gave Jeff a wicked glare. "Excuse me?"

"Don't treat me like I'm one of your lower associates, Pierce. You know I'm not afraid of you," Jeff said.

Pierce leaned forward, trying to seem more threatening. "_I_ am in charge here, Winger. _Me_. The only reason you're here is because your no good father got himself in too deep, and your silly mother couldn't hold a week's paycheck if she tried. You're here because you have no one else. I took you under my wing; I _raised_ you, Jeffrey. I'm sitting in this chair because _I_ _am in charge_, and if you continue to question that authority, you will suffer dearly. Don't you ever forget that."

Jeff wanted to snap at him again. He wanted to tell Pierce what a fool he was, remind him how the only reason everything hadn't fallen to pieces was because of what Jeff had done for him lately. He bit his tongue again. There was a time and a place for something like this. If he jumped too soon, he'd screw it all up. Jeff was too clever, and he had come to far, to ruin it over Pierce being a dick.

Jeff took a deep breath to calm himself, then asked, "What now?"

"Don't go after Laybourne. Don't try to exact revenge, it'll only make an even bigger mess. Just let it sit for now. We'll figure all of this out after the election."

"Why does everything have to be after the election?" Jeff asked.

Pierce sighed. "There's a new candidate, Ian Duncan. He wants to rid the streets of Greendale of it's crimes. He's quite a favourite around here," He admitted.

"That's why you've been so gung-ho about this? You know you're gonna win, right?"

"Ever the optimist, Jeffrey," Pierce said with a bitter smile. It faded quickly and his face became serious. "_Let this sit._ Understand?"

"Yes," Jeff lied.

He didn't care what Pierce said. As far as he was concerned, Pierce didn't have a clue what he was doing. And it wasn't like Pierce was gonna be around for much longer anyway. He was getting old; It was time for retirement. That, and new management.

Pierce leaned back, relaxing into his chair. "Great. Now go work on Troy's case. You're dismissed."

Jeff nodded and stood up. "I've never properly thanked you for everything you've done for me and my mom," Jeff said. "So thank you. I appreciate it no matter what happens."

Pierce frowned at him. "Stop being gay and go do some work."

Jeff gave him a salute. "Yes, sir."

XXX

Being a constant house guest of the Hawthorne mansion and living in the Hawthorne mansion were two completely different things.

When Annie was a house guest, she never actually got to see what went on at night, which was usually when the mansion was at it's busiest.

Annie woke up at four in the morning to loud ruckus. When she stepped out of her room, she witnessed for the first time, the lively action of Hawthorne mansion at night.

Across the hall, Britta's door was flung open. Britta was sitting on the floor with her back to Annie. She was wiring a bunch of dynamites together, while music blared from her speakers. Apparently, it was to help her concentrate. Annie didn't bother asking how that could possibly help. She had stopped trying to understand Britta a long time ago.

Abed was up too, running from room to room, carrying an open laptop in his hand. He never stayed in one room for longer than a minute, and every so often he'd be on the phone whispering to some one.

Jeff on the other hand, was invisible at night. Mostly, because he wasn't around, and when he was, he was too busy for anyone. He poured over files and papers in his office at the end of the hall for about an hour. Then suddenly got up and left, usually checking how many bullets he had on his way out. He'd be gone for an hour, then come back slightly ruffled, smelling of scotch and blood.

What these three psychos were actually up to, this late at night, was a mystery to Annie. She didn't ask because they probably wouldn't tell anyway. And it was interesting watching them all doing what they did best, without disturbance. It was like watching a magic trick. Annie was always trying to figure out what was being done, but never really knew for sure.

After wandering around the mansion, and spying on all the action, she went back to bed.

She was awoken early in the morning, by Jeff nudging her. She opened her eyes and found him sitting on the edge of her bed, looking down at her.

"Get up. It's time for your first lesson," He said. Then left the room without explaining anything further.

Annie got dressed and got breakfast, but couldn't find Jeff anywhere around the mansion. She checked outside, but his car was parked and he was nowhere to be found. She went back in, wandering around the various rooms of the Hawthorne mansion, and eventually found him in Abed's room.

Abed's bed was had a series of guns layed out on it. They were various sized and shapes, and he and Jeff were loading all of them up.

"What are you doing?" Annie asked.

"Busy day, Edison," Abed said in an Italian accent.

"He's going for Don Corleone this morning," Jeff informed her as he loaded up a shotgun. "We're just setting things up."

"We're not gonna use all of those, are we?" She asked.

"_You're_ not," Abed said. "B-Y-O-W."

"Bring your own weapon," Jeff explained at her confused look.

"For what? What exactly are we gonna do?" She asked.

Jeff smirked at her. "We're gonna show Laybourne exactly who he's messing with."

"Get your weapon," Abed said, still in his Italian accent.

"I- I don't have one," Annie said, self-consciously. Was she supposed to?

"Annie, clothes make the man, and weapons make the killer. So take your pick," He said gesturing to the guns on Abed's bed.

There was every type of gun Annie had ever heard of, and some she hadn't; Some looked old enough to be from the first world war. There were guns from other countries, that held bullets of all sizes; There were pistols, and shotguns, and rifles, and revolvers, and machine guns, and really pretty much every gun ever made.

Annie didn't know anything about guns other than the little Jeff had taught her at the shooting range. She'd only ever used a shotgun before. She felt overwhelmed.

"Which one's the best?" She asked.

"It's not about which one's the best, it's about which one's the best _for you_," Jeff said, coming up beside her.

"Unless guns aren't really your thing," Abed piped up.

"She's good with guns," Jeff said to him, defensively.

"She killed Magnitude with a knife," Abed pointed out.

Jeff quirked an eyebrow and turned to Annie with a questioning look.

She nodded with certainty. "I want a knife."

"Very well," said Jeff with a smirk. "Then go get it."


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N - The document manager tells me it's been 45 days since I last uploaded a chapter for this, so ... sorry. Also ignore any inaccuracies with all the prison business. I know barely anything about the Irish prison system, let alone the American one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

><p>In a way, Jeff had a point about weapons making the killer. Their weapons said a lot about them. It was like they corresponded with their personalities.<p>

Britta was a bomb girl; Explosive and destructive. She burned everything to the ground and left no one in her wake.

Troy liked baseball bats and his fists; Strong, obviously. He seemed simple, but he could pound away at some one until they were just a mess of muscle and bone.

Abed liked to carry a variety. A revolver, because it was a classic; A sub-machine gun because it was fast; A shotgun because it was effective; And a rifle, because he could observe from afar, and still nail his victims right in the head. No matter where he was or what kind of job he was doing, he blended right in.

Jeff carried a handgun. It was a pretty common one too; A semi-automatic used by armed forces in over fifty countries. It was concise and it didn't mess around, just like Jeff.

Which meant Annie was a knife; sharp and thorough. And it all made perfect sense to her.

Jeff drove them up to the northern part of Greendale, in Laybourne's area. Annie knew this place was surrounded by Laybourne's men, doing their business at every corner, but Jeff and Abed didn't seem too worried about it. They weren't there to get into a gang-fight, they had specific men in mind.

"All the associates go to the same club every Wednesday for poker," Abed told Jeff from the passenger seat. "We go in there right now and we'll have all our eggs in one basket. One of them will have testified, and if not, they'll at least know who it was."

"Great work, Abed," Jeff said.

"Are we finishing them all?" Abed asks.

"Of course. We need to send Laybourne a message remember?" Jeff said.

"But Pierce -"

"Let me worry about Pierce," Jeff assured him.

"You're already worrying about everything else," Abed reminded him.

"You're not gonna get in trouble for this, are you?" Annie asked.

Jeff stayed silent.

"I don't want to get you into trouble."

"You won't!" Jeff exclaimed. "Now, both of you drop it. You're acting like pansies."

Silence filled the car. Then Abed asked, "So all of them?"

"Leave some for Britta. She'll give me another speech about slave labour if I let all her hard work be in vain," Jeff said.

He turned a sharp corner into an empty back-alley. He stopped the car in front of a large metal door, with green paint chipping away from it. He turned to face Abed, and the two nodded to each other in understanding. Abed clambered out of the car, and Jeff turned to face Annie.

"You ready for this?"

"As I'll ever be," She said.

Jeff nodded. "Follow my lead. Don't stab anyone unless I tell you to." And then he pushed the door open, and climbed out too.

They went through the green door, and climbed up three flights of stairs before arriving at their destination. Abed went through first.

The door led them to an empty hall. The walls were gray and dirty, and there was stained, old-fashioned carpet running along the floor. At the end of the hall was a giant, tough-looking bouncer, and behind him another door. The three of them walked up the hallway, and Abed nodded silently at the bouncer, widening his eyes. The bouncer merely blinked back at him, then opened the door, standing back to let the three of them through.

Inside was a table, with eight men surrounding it, laughing heartily and throwing chips to the middle. When they saw Jeff and Abed walk through they all reached into their pockets.

"I wouldn't do that," Abed said quickly, pulling a detonator out of his jacket, and holding up the machine gun in warning. The bouncer came in behind them, and another bouncer came in through another door, holding machine guns and pointing them at the table.

"What the hell's going on here?" A guy with a cowboy hat, and blonde hair asked. He was rather attractive, with dimples and nice eyes.

Jeff cocked his head at the table, keeping his hands safely in the pockets of his suit.

"My name's Jeff Winger," He said. "You've probably heard of me."

"I haven't," The blonde guy said in a southern accent.

Jeff's face took on a stony expression. _Bad move_, Annie thought. If this guy wanted to get out alive, he really needed to be playing on Jeff's ego right now.

"I work for Pierce Hawthorne," Jeff said stiffly.

The blonde nodded. "Oh. What are you doing on our turf?"

"One of you testified against one of my men. I want to know who," Jeff said.

"Your men?" Some one else spoke up. He was rather large, wearing glasses, and looked extremely out of place with the rest of these mobsters. "I thought you were all Pierce Hawthorne's people."

"Garrett has a point. Is your man or Hawthorne's?" The blonde said, trying to rile Jeff up.

Jeff glared at him. "If one of you doesn't admit to it, I'm gonna use you, to teach my dear friend, Annie, how to effectively kill some one," Jeff said. He gestured for Annie to step up beside him.

"Her?" Blondie scoffed. "She couldn't kill a snail if she stepped on it." He directed his attention to Annie. "What are you doing here, sweetheart? You don't belong in these parts of town."

"I belong wherever I want!" Annie snapped at him, angrily.

He smirked. "Oh. Feisty. Why don't you come over here, so Black Rider can have a better look at you."

Jeff rolled his eyes. "That's it," He said. He pulled his gun out of it's holster and took one clean shot at the blonde who called himself Black Rider, getting him right on the forehead. Black Rider fell limply out of his chair.

"If anyone else wants to die today feel free to test my patience further," Jeff said out to the room. "Now, tell me who testified against Troy Barnes, or _she_ will kill you all, one by one."

"We don't know what you're talking about," One of the men said calmly.

"I'm not afraid of some _girl_," the kid with the glasses said. Jeff quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Well aren't you a brave little soldier," Jeff told the kid sarcastically. "What's your name?"

"Garrett."

"Annie why don't you step over to Garrett," Jeff told her, giving her a cheeky smile.

Annie did as she was told, giving Garrett the most vicious glare she could muster.

Jeff stepped up next to her smiling mischievously at the guy sitting next to Garrett.

"I don't have a knife," Jeff began. "But I suppose if you stab where I shoot, it won't make much of a difference when he's dead." And then, Jeff grabbed the guy by the hair and stuck a bullet right in his neck. Blood shot out and splattered in the face of some of the men sitting across the table.

Jeff gave Annie an encouraging smile. "Your turn." His voice was low and dangerous.

Garrett had the brains to actually look frightened of her now. He tried to hide it but Annie could see it in his eyes. She liked knowing she was the one causing that look.

"This is embarrassing," She said to him. "Now everyone will know you were murdered by a _girl_." She stuck the knife through his neck, right where Jeff had demonstrated on the other guy. Garrett choked, and blood poured down the front of his checkered shirt.

The guys sitting around the table began to panic. Only one of them was relaxed, in fact, he looked rather bored with the whole scene.

"That was good," Jeff said to Annie. "You forgot to pack the right punch. See you wanna make them jerk back, that's how you know you've done a good job. Like this," He said, then he shot the next guy to his right without warning. He smiled politely at the remaining men, as if he was trying to teach Annie how to play guitar rather than kill some one.

Annie nodded, smiling now. She couldn't help herself. She felt giddy, and she was actually having quite a bit of fun.

"Like this?" She asked, stepping up to the man next to Garrett. His eyes shone up at her in fear, as she stuck the knife into his chest, pushing it around a bit so it had impact. Blood fell from the man's mouth, and when Annie pulled the dripping knife out, the man's body fell forward. Dead.

"Close," Jeff noted.

He walked over to her and then smiled at the man sitting nearest to them. He turned to look at Annie, clearly enjoying this little game they'd somehow started.

"I'll show you," Jeff said. His voice was low and heavy. He put his gun back in his holster, and pulled her by the waist, in front of the man. Jeff stood behind her, positioning himself the way he used to do whenever they went to the shooting range, only this time he was much, much closer. He his left hand, lightly on her hip, and held her wrist with his right.

"You see, what you're doing is this," He breathed into her ear, his voice barely above a whisper. He guided her hand that was holding the knife, and forced it into the man's chest. The man bit his lip, trying to keep himself from screaming. "Just because you're using a knife, doesn't mean you stop trying to aim," He instructed. He pulled her hand and the knife away. "So you don't want to do this," He said, stabbing the man again, a little lower than before. "Or this." He moved the knife out and then lowered it to the man's stomach. Annie could see the red staining the man's shirt. His eyes were beginning to roll backwards.

"What do I want to do then?" Annie asked, swallowing down a nervous gulp. She could feel his breath on her neck. She could even feel his heart, racing just as fast as hers; enjoying this just as much as she was. She felt herself flush.

Jeff's hand traveled up from her wrist and wrapped around her fist, with the knife was caught between them. Annie risked a glance at his face, and he smiled softly at her, right from over her shoulder.

"You do this," He said gently, and then drove the knife right through the man's heart as hard as he could.

Annie let out an exhilarated breath, and giggled.

"This is ridiculous," One of the guys muttered. "We ain't telling you who testified. You can murder us and flirt with your girlfriend all you want, but no one's telling you nothing."

Jeff straightened up, pulling away from Annie. "That was a double negative," He told the guy, like he felt sorry for him. Then shot him three times in the chest. The guy, like the rest, fell to the floor and his death.

There were two men left sitting around the poker table. One looked twitchy, and the other still looked calm and collected.

"You boys gonna talk?" Jeff asked them.

The men shared looks.

"I can tell you the man you're looking for," The calm one said.

"Garrity, no!" The other exclaimed.

"Garrity?" Abed asked. "Sean Garrity?"

Garrity nodded.

Abed smiled slightly. "You're the one they call Professor Professorson. I'm a big fan," Abed admitted. Jeff frowned at him in amusement.

"Garrity, don't tell him anything. They're not gonna let you out of here. Laybourne's gonna -"

"Somebody shut him up," Jeff groaned.

"I got it," Annie said happily then skipped her way over to the twitchy guy.

"Y- You're pathological," The guy stammered.

Annie beamed. "That's flattering, but I'd say I'm more … _psycho_." She gave him the widest grin she could and then slit his throat from left to right, with ease. The man gurgled and flopped forward, letting his blood spill over the poker chips and playing cards.

Jeff smiled proudly at her, and turned back to Garrity.

"I want to live," Garrity said simply. "I have a family I need to take care of, and I have no beef with you. It's just business."

"Who testified?" Jeff asked darkly.

"The guy you're looking for is Craig Pelton. He's Laybourne's underboss."

"I know who he is," Jeff spat. "You know, he's put me through a lot of legal work I don't have the time for. In fact, I'm pretty sure all of you here have."

"It's just business," Garrity repeated.

"You're right, it is," Jeff told him. He nodded to Abed who raised his eyebrows back as some form of silent communication.

"Thank you for your help," Jeff said to Garrity. Then the gestured for Annie to follow him and Abed. And the three of them left with the bouncers.

"You're gonna let him live?" Annie asked. As they got themselves back into the car.

"Of course not," Jeff told her as he pulled out of the alleyway. "I told you, we have to leave some one for Britta."

When they were two blocks away from the building, Jeff stopped the car and gave Abed a meaningful look. Abed nodded and pulled the detonator from his pocket, setting it off.

The explosion still sounded pretty loud from two block away and Annie could see the ash filling up the sky, and tiny bits of debris falling around Jeff's car.

"That went well," Abed said.

"Mhm," Jeff agreed. He turned to Abed with a serious expression. "I want you to send some money to Garrity's family."

Abed looked like he wanted to question him, but thought better of it.

"Once that's done I need you to find everything you can on Pelton. We need to get him before Laybourne can think of a way to get us."

"Sure thing, boss," Abed said.

Jeff turned to face Annie and smiled. "You were great."

"Was I?"

"Of course. You saw those guys; they were terrified of you."

Annie blushed. "I was just doing what you said."

"And you were fantastic at it," Jeff insisted. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," Annie said.

Jeff didn't turn around right away, choosing instead to let their stare linger or a little longer. If Abed took note of it, he didn't say anything, cleaning his unused gun instead.

Jeff finally turned to face the front, and started up the car again.

"Pretty soon you'll be doing this all on your own," He called back to her, smiling at her through the rear-view mirror.

Annie sure hoped so. This was probably the most fun thing she'd ever done. Plus, she didn't throw up this time around.

XXX

Jeff had a problem.

Well, no. That was an understatement. Jeff had many problems. Everything in his life came with some sort of problem. And over half of them were connected to Pierce or Laybourne somehow. But this particular problem was the one he thought about the most.

It was Annie. Of course. Because his life was a high school drama now.

He could live with her getting under his skin. He may not know how to deal with it, but he always had the option of just _not_ dealing with it, before. But now, she wasn't just under his skin, she was everywhere. In every damn thought he had, every hour of every day. Always, always Annie.

He didn't know what it was that made him so sappy. He just wanted to see her smile, and he sort of hated himself for it.

And then he wanted to kiss her, and didn't hate himself quite as much as society told him he should. He didn't care that she was young, and naïve, and probably didn't have a full idea of what she'd gotten herself into. Those were all things he could fix with time and work. But it was more than that now. There were actual feelings involved.

Jeff cared about her, and that was a mistake, because Jeff wasn't supposed to care about anything. That's what made him so good at what he did, his lack of emotions towards anyone other than himself.

And okay, fine. He cared about Abed, and Troy, and Britta, and Shirley, and even Pierce when he wasn't being an asshole. But he didn't care about them the way he cared about Annie. He cared about her in a dangerous way. A way that could be used against him, and would probably work.

He was a danger to her, and she was a danger to his work. And right now, work was priority _numero uno_. He had to beat Pierce. He had to take over, and win, and actually like being a part of the Greendale underworld again. If Annie got mixed in the middle of that, who knew what would happen. Everything could go to crap.

Or everything would be even better. Annie was skilled. If anyone could make his project succeed it was her. And Jeff wanted her around.

He wanted her, but he didn't want to want her. It was too confusing and conflicting and he had no idea how to solve all of this.

And then there were those fleeting moments, where she'd give him a bright, sweet smile. Her blue eyes would sparkle with this _thing_ he could never place. No one ever looked at him like that. He didn't want anyone to ever look at him like that, except her.

It was really inconvenient.

Yep. Jeff had a _big_ problem.

XXX

Life was going great for Annie.

She spent most of her time in the mansion, hanging out with Abed. They played video games and watched movies, and pulled crazy shenanigans whenever they had the time. Abed seemed rather lonely with Troy in prison, but he still tried to have fun whenever he could. Annie used to think it was strange that he could be so childish and do what he did, but it made sense now. Being childish kept him sane, because if he didn't have movies and games to turn to, what was he? Just a cold-blooded killer. And for what? Money? He didn't care about that.

He didn't do this for the reward that came with it, he did it because something in his brain told him this was what mattered. And sometimes he needed to step out of the man who thought crime was everything in the world, and step into the man who wanted to watch twelve episodes of Inspector Spacetime in one day. It made sense to Annie now.

When Abed wasn't around, Annie hung around with Britta. After their little talk, Britta seemed to be warming up to Annie. She still didn't understand Annie the way she wanted to, and Annie had a feeling that was frustrating her, but it was only because they were so different. And it didn't matter how different they were, deep down, they were more alike than anything.

Britta had seen the world, but didn't understand it. Annie understood everything, but had little experience. They could learn from each other. Britta saw that now, so she let Annie hang around. She taught Annie a few things about bombs, though Annie didn't have much interest in them. She mostly told Annie how to disarm them, in case she was ever caught in a situation like that.

Britta felt like the big sister Annie never had. In fact, they all felt like family. Annie found herself liking this new family more and more, with every new thing she learned from them.

And then there was Jeff.

Jeff was like family too, but also so much more than that. She had feelings for him, and it was so much more than what she had felt for Troy. Troy had been a schoolgirl fantasy she could never achieve, Jeff wasn't that. He was attainable. Annie caught him watching her sometimes. It wasn't just her, it couldn't be.

Jeff felt it too. He just acted like he didn't which was infuriating most of the time. She tried to edge him on sometimes. She'd smile for a little longer than she should, and let her hand linger on his arm, but nothing worked.

It didn't help that his actions constantly contradicted the respectable distance he tried to keep between them. He'd smile politely and pat her on the head. But he'd never let her kill completely on her own; he'd always be there when they'd go to kill some pointless mook, and he'd step in close enough that she could smell his aftershave. It was very confusing.

She wanted to confront him about it – had even convinced herself she would a couple of times – but whenever she tried, he was always busy somehow. Troy's case was taking a toll on him, just as Abed had suspected it would. Jeff would spend hours late at night, running over information to find a way out for Troy. He was a good lawyer but he couldn't make evidence in Troy's favour appear out of thin air.

It didn't help that Pelton had gone into hiding after he found out Jeff was after him. Abed was still keeping up with contacts, looking for him, but it seemed Pelton's presence in the world was growing smaller and smaller. He was good at keeping himself undercover.

If the stress of Troy's case and Pelton's disappearance wasn't keeping Jeff busy and distracted, it was Pierce. Pierce had also found out about Jeff and Abed's little attack on Laybourne's men, and wasn't happy about it. He'd stopped by the mansion and yelled at Jeff and Abed for a little under two hours. They both kept him out of the dark about Annie's participation in the little attack, probably for her own good.

All of this was mounting on Jeff, and whenever Annie saw him, he was usually buried in paperwork, yelling back at Pierce over the phone, or snoring on the couch from lack of sleep. The only time he ever seemed relaxed was when he took her out to teach her about killing, and even that was strained because he'd get too close then step away and act distant for the rest of the day.

Despite all the confusion and tension in the Hawthorne mansion, Annie still loved every second she spent in it. These people were her family, and she loved each and every one of them. She was happy and relaxed, and nothing ever really bothered her anymore.

And then Annie's birthday rolled around, and after almost two years of absence, her father finally called.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N - A wild chapter appears! It's been a while, so lower your expectations slightly? I don't know. But it's here, and there will be more, albeit slowly._

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><p>"I know what you're trying to do, but you're walking on thin ice, Jeffrey. You keep this up you could get yourself into some real trouble. You're behaving like a child, and that's not how we do things around here."<p>

"Oh?" Jeff said with disinterest.

"I'm serious. It's my way, or no way," Pierce continued sternly.

They'd been on the phone for an hour and a half now. Pierce had been slowly lecturing Jeff because he let Annie give one of Laybourne's guys a little scare. She didn't even kill the guy. It was just a little threat. They only wanted information on Pelton's whereabouts. But still, Pierce found a way to make a good idea seem like a bad one. At least in his eyes.

Jeff sighed into the receiver. "Abed will be thrilled about how clichéd you've become."

"Is this a joke to you, Jeffrey?"

It was a little bit.

"No," Jeff said.

"Then stop acting like a brat and do as I say for once," Pierce snapped.

"What if what you say is the wrong thing?" Jeff countered.

"What was that?"

"I said -"

"I heard you, I just thought you'd want a chance to be a little wiser with your words. Like I said it's -"

"Your way or no way. I got it the first time," Jeff said rolling his eyes.

"Than maybe you should listen to it for once."

Jeff scoffed. From the corner of his eye, Abed entered the room, holding a manila folder in his hands, with a wide-eyed look of accomplishment. Jeff gave him an acknowledging nod, only half-listening to what Pierce was still saying.

"Because I am warning you now, Jeffrey, I won't have you going against me again. If you ignore my orders one more time, you may as well pack up your things and leave."

"Uh huh," Jeff said noncommittally, taking the file from Abed and opening it. Inside were photos of Pelton going into a club. He smirked. Abed gave him a nod.

"I'm glad we understand each other," Pierce said. "So drop your silly vendetta on Pelton, you're done with that. I want you focusing on business. Especially since the election's nearly up. I need you to keep things running smoothly while I'm campaigning, you understand?"

"I understand," Jeff said.

"What did I say?" Pierce asked, like a patronizing father.

"Drop Pelton; work on business," Jeff parroted like a drone.

"Good," Pierce said, and hung up without saying goodbye. Jeff threw down his phone and smiled up at Abed.

"We found him?"

"We found him," Abed repeated.

"What's the situation?" Jeff asked.

"He's got himself a safe-house somewhere, it's impossible to find. But every Thursday he goes to the same club for an hour, like clockwork. It's tough security but I could sort some things out."

Jeff nodded along. "So we just get in and get what we need?"

"No. He's accompanied by Laybourne's men at all times, but he does request a fifteen minute private show whenever he goes in there."

"_Private_ show?"

"He has a dalmatian kink that even the bodyguards can't stomach," Abed explained. "That leaves us with a small window of opportunity before they come in and get him. That's when we strike."

Jeff closed up the file and handed it back to Abed. "Today's a Thursday, isn't it?"

Abed frowned slightly. "You want to strike tonight? Don't you want to plan this out first."

"Abed, if there's one thing I have faith in, it's your attention to detail. You have this mission all planned out in your head, you just need the okay from me. And I just gave it."

The corners of Abed's lips curled up slightly. "Then we strike tonight," He said. "Do you want Annie on this one?"

Jeff hesitated. "She went out earlier, if she's back by then we'll find a place for her to sit-in, but meanwhile, plan without her."

Abed narrowed his eyes on Jeff, but nodded anyway.

"And Pierce?"

"Don't worry about Pierce," Jeff said.

"You may not have been listening to the end of your conversation, Jeff, but I was. He's losing his patience with you, and I know your project is going to succeed, but I don't think Pierce is gonna let you screw around for much longer. He's serious."

"Don't worry about me, Abed. I know what I'm doing."

Abed nodded jerkily. "If you say so," He shrugged. "I'm here for you, though. If you need it."

"I appreciate that," Jeff said told him honestly. "Now go sort out our way into that club."

Abed nodded one last time, before scurrying away.

XXX

Annie scanned the heads of all the people in the restaurant when she entered. The place was really fancy. People were dressed in business suits and designer dresses, probably talking about things like politics, and stocks, and how none of them have to worry about the current state of the economy because they're all filthy rich. It was the kind of place she imagined Jeff would have _real_ business meetings, if he were that kind of lawyer.

She felt slightly left out in her simple black dress. It wasn't even hers. She borrowed it from Britta when she found out how fancy the place was going to be.

Annie spotted her father quickly. Marcus Edison was sitting at a table for two at the back. He had a glass of wine in front of him, and he was taking small, nervous sips of it.

He stood when he noticed her walking over, which showed just how messed up their relationship was. He treated her like a fellow colleague and not his own daughter.

"Ann," He said as she sat, giving her a guarded smile. "It's nice to see you. Happy birthday"

Annie smiled back. She had several snippy comebacks to that line - seeing as he hadn't spoken to her in over a year - but held them back. She was willing to give him a chance.

"It's good to see you too, Dad. Thank you."

Marcus nodded and flagged down a waitress, ordering Annie a glass of water and a pork dish for both of them. He didn't bother asking if she wanted it or not which bothered her more than it used to.

"So," He said. "What have you been up to?"

"Not much," She said vaguely.

"Yeah? And where are you living now?" He asked.

Annie had an unsettling feeling like she was being interrogated. "I have a house up in the north side of town. I live there with a few friends," She said. It was only half a lie.

Marcus nodded. "That's good. And do you go to college with them or ..." He trailed off.

Annie squared her shoulders. "Nope. I never went to college," She said. "You know, because you and mom kicked me out, and I had no money to pay for it."

Marcus sighed. "Annie, you know I never wanted to kick you out."

"And yet you never even tried to stop Mom when she began throwing all my stuff out of the house. You never stopped her from slamming the door in my face. You never tried to find me in rehab, or after when I was living above a Dildopolis, so excuse me if I didn't quite catch that message," Annie snapped.

Her father opened his mouth to say something, but the waitress appeared with their food and he stopped himself, swallowing it down with a guilty expression.

Once the waitress was gone, he leaned forward. "I know, okay? What I did, wasn't right and I'm sorry, but you never stopped being my daughter. After you left, your mother and I fought all the time -"

"You didn't need me gone for that," Annie muttered under her breath.

Marcus winced, but kept going. "We've separated. We're getting a divorce. I should have never let her do that to you."

Annie frowned. "It wasn't just _her_, Dad. It's as much your fault as it is hers."

Marcus made a sour face. It reminded Annie of Britta, but a lot less endearing. "I admit, I didn't stick up for you the way I should have, but you betrayed my trust. You took those drugs from my office, I could have lost my job! And as far as comparing me and your mother, I am nothing like that woman, alright? I didn't do anything."

Annie scoffed. "Exactly! You _didn't do anything_! You just stood there as she screamed what an embarrassment I was to her! I'm your daughter, you're supposed to stick up for me!"

Marcus started shooting anxious looks around them, and Annie noticed other people were watching them now. She took a sip of water, and glared at them. She could kill them all if she wanted to. They should mind their own damn business.

Marcus sighed. "I know, Ann. I know, and I'm really and truly sorry. But that's why I'm calling you. To make it up to you by sticking up for you now, like a father should."

"Well it's a bit late for that. I don't need you to stick up for me anymore," She told him coldly.

He stared at her with something that looked like sympathy. Why was he feeling sorry for her? He was the pathetic one. "Annie," He said tenderly, reaching out and holding her hand. "The truth is, I went looking for you a couple of weeks ago," He said. "Your old landlord gave me your forwarding address at Greendale Community College but when I got there they had no record of you ever attending the school, so I asked around and found out you were selling again."

Annie pulled her hand away. "I'm not anymore," She said defensively.

"No, I know," Marcus said. "I hired a private investigator."

"You what?" Annie exclaimed. People looked around again, and her father flinched, but she didn't care anymore.

"Look, whatever trouble you got yourself into, I'll help you, okay? I can pay Hawthorne off. You won't have to work for him anymore," He said quietly so no one could hear him.

Annie almost laughed in his face. "You think I'm in trouble?"

Marcus gave her another pitying look. It made her blood boil with rage. "For your information, I'm not in any trouble with the mob. I work for them, because they're my friends. They helped me through my tough time which is more than I can say for you," She spat. "I don't need you to pay off anybody, in fact, I don't need _you_ at all."

"Ann, you don't have to be scared," Marcus insisted.

"I'm not scared," Annie told him, and she was actually smiling now. "I'm not some overwhelmed teenager anymore. I can take care of myself."

"Ann," Marcus began.

"No, Dad. I've killed men twice my size before. I think I can handle it."

Marcus shook his head, like this was a reality he just couldn't fathom. "No. You're eighteen! You're my little girl, and I'm here to take care of you, so you don't become a -" He stopped himself quickly, eyes widening.

"A what, Dad?" Annie asked. "A monster?" He winced.

Annie leaned forward with a smirk, taking both her father's hands in hers. "But I am a monster, Daddy," She said in an fake innocent voice. "I'm nineteen now, and I'm _not_ your little girl anymore. You made sure of that when you and Mom gave up on me. But these other _monsters_, they're my family. They would_ never_ give up on me, because that's not what family does."

She dropped his hands and the innocent little girl facade, setting her face into a stony expression. "I'm gonna need you to stop trying to take care of me, or else I'm gonna have to _take care_ of you. And my definition of _take care of_ is a lot different to yours."

She stood up and threw her napkin down onto her untouched dinner. "Thank you for the birthday pork chops, but I'm Jewish." And with that she walked out of the restaurant, not even sparing her father one last glance. He didn't deserve anything more from her.

There was an itch in her fingertips, and she was seething all the way down to her bones. She needed a release.

No.

A kill.

XXX

Jeff and Abed were huddled in the kitchen over a map of the club Pelton went to. It was almost time for attack, they were just going over the plan one more time.

Britta was sitting at the kitchen table, cleaning out a sniper rifle with a grouchy look.

"I'll snipe out the two guys at the front door, giving you and Britta a chance to go inside," Abed said.

"Why do I have to go on this mission. You know I hate playing with guns," She said.

"I promise I'll let you blow something up before the day is done. Now can you please shut up and focus?" Jeff snapped at her.

She rolled her eyes but nodded for Abed to continue anyway.

"Once you guys are inside, you'll have four guards to take out, plus a bartender who'll probably be carrying. After that there's a room at the back where Pelton will be getting his show. I don't know if he'll be armed are not, but his dancers have panic buttons."

"Are they wired to the entire bar, because I can re-wire those," Britta said.

"It'll take too long. If you're re-wiring Jeff will be in there on his own," Abed said.

"It's just Pelton and a couple of dancers. I can take them."

Abed shook his head. "The dancers are trained in several martial arts. I don't know how many are gonna be in there and I don't know if they'll be armed or not, let alone if Pelton will have a gun on him. There's too many things that could go wrong if you go in there alone."

"Jeez, Abed. You couldn't have gotten us some definite information?" Britta asked.

"My guys don't know much about that room," Abed explained. "Most of them just shudder when I ask about it."

"I'm not surprised. Pelton's known for being kinky," Jeff said with a grimace.

"So no re-wiring," Abed said. "You just have to make sure no one presses the panic button while you're in there or Laybourne's cops will show up."

"Jeff!" A shrill voice screeched from the foyer. Annie marched in looking absolutely livid.

She was wearing one of Britta's old dresses. It was black and simple, and Jeff new he wasn't supposed to say these things, but it looked way better on Annie.

"Is everything okay?" He asked her, since last time she showed up unannounced it was because she'd killed some one.

"I want a mission," She said simply.

"What mission?"

"Any mission! I just need to cut somebody _now_," She snapped.

Britta raised her eyebrows, and Abed cocked his head at her.

Jeff stepped away from the counter, towards Annie. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" She said. "Why does everybody always assume I'm in trouble all the time? I can take care of myself just fine! I'm eighteen! No, nineteen, because it's my freaking birthday!" Her arms flailed around angrily, and Jeff had to take a step back so she didn't accidentally swat him in the chest.

"Annie, calm down," He said tentatively.

"I am calm, Jeff! Now give me a mission so I can chop people to pieces!" She exclaimed.

Jeff turned and nodded to the door. Britta took the hint and put the rifle down. She pulled Abed with her towards the door, giving Jeff a nod on her way out.

Jeff turned back to Annie, who had crossed her arms in a huff.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing's wrong," She snapped.

"Annie, I'm not letting you kill anyone when you're so emotionally riled up. It's reckless and stupid, so tell me what's wrong," Jeff said patiently.

Annie sighed in frustration and took the seat Britta had been sitting in. "I had dinner with my father tonight," She said.

Jeff nodded in understanding and took the seat across from her. "Well if there's one thing I know, it's daddy issues."

"He thought I was working for you because I was in some sort of financial trouble. Funny how when I was working in a sex store to pay for a place to live he didn't even care. He probably only bothered now because I was bringing shame to he family name again."

"He sounds like an ass," Jeff offered.

"He is," Annie agreed. "I wish he could see me now; see just how little I really need him."

"And you want to kill some one to prove yourself?"

"No, I want to kill some one because if I don't I might just end up killing him," She said.

Her eyes sparkled with determination. She wasn't backing out of this.

Jeff understood. He knew what it was like to be so furious you just snapped. Hell, he'd done it a hundred times before his job actually became important in the commission. Annie needed to let it out, that was certain.

And there was something else. She just looked so damn hot when she was riled up like this. Jeff wanted to see what that could do. He wanted to see how far she'd go when she was pushed hard enough. He wanted to see her at her worst.

He leaned forward and smiled at her. "How would you like to go solo on a mission?"

Her eyes lit up with anticipation. "You mean like kill some one on my own?"

"Not kill. We need him alive. But as close as you can get," Jeff said.

She looked like she wanted to smile, but held it back a little. "You think I'm ready for that?" She asked self-consciously.

"Don't you?" Jeff countered.

Annie nodded an all-business nod.

Jeff grinned. "Go tell Britta she's allowed to re-wire the panic buttons, and get your knife. I'll tell you the plan on the drive there."

XXX

The excitement was buzzing through Annie's veins. The knife hidden in the stripper boots Britte lent her felt strange. Annie felt like everyone knew it was there, despite how irrational that was. The gun Abed provided for her felt heavy in her hands. All the adrenaline rushing through her made her want to jump up and down, but she didn't.

She sat patiently in the passenger seat next to Jeff. Britta was in the back spinning the barrel of a revolver. Like Annie, Britta didn't have a gun of her own. Abed had given them both revolvers because according to him it gave them more of a classic crime movie feel. Britta had rolled her eyes, but Annie had liked the idea.

Abed had watched a bunch of old film-noirs with her since they met. She liked the idea of being one of those femme fatales; beautiful, confident, and strong.

Britta spun the barrel again.

"Can you stop that!" Jeff said to her. He was looking through a set of binoculars, watching the door of the club.

"I'm bored," Britta whined.

"Well we can't make a move until Abed shoots down the door guys, so just wait. Pretend you're counting down to an explosion or something," Jeff told her.

"This is why I don't do missions with him," Britta said, leaning into Annie's ear. "He's too tightly wound."

"I can still hear you," Jeff informed them.

Britta rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you need to get laid," She said, then gave Annie a meaningful wink.

Annie tried not to blush, but it didn't matter because Jeff eyes were still glued to the binoculars.

"What, no snarky comebacks?" Britta teased.

"One down," Jeff said, finally lowering the binoculars.

From the distance the three of them could see one of the security guards pointing his gun to the tops of the buildings across the street. His partner was on the ground, not moving.

The guard took a shot at nothing, and then jerked back. Blood spilled from the back of his head.

"And two," Jeff said with a smile. He pulled out his phone and pressed the speed dial. "Nice work, Abed. We're moving in."

He paused as Abed said something, then rolled his eyes. "I'm not calling you that," He said, opening the door. Britta and Annie followed.

"Because we don't need codenames," He said, hanging up the phone.

Annie saw that Abed had gotten them both right on the head. He had a such a precise shot. Quiet and lethal, just like Abed.

Jeff saluted to a window across the street, and Annie saw Abed's shadow saluting back.

Jeff turned to Annie and Britta, pulling out his gun and screwing on a silencer. "Do we all know the plan?"

Annie nodded. Britta said, "We go in, take out the guards and you guys deal with Pelton while I cancel out the panic buttons."

"Precisely," Jeff said. "Don't Britta it."

Britta glared at him, and he smirked back, before kicking down the door and marching in.

The guys inside were at the bar having drinks. They weren't prepared and Jeff managed to shoot two of them down before any of them took their guns out. Britta shot the bartender but only got him in the shoulder. He ducked down behind the bar, and the other two guards started shooting.

Annie dodged one of them and shot him twice in the chest. It didn't kill him, but it injured him enough that he dropped to the ground to bleed out.

The other guy pointed his gun at Annie, but Jeff shot his hand before he could pull the trigger. He cried out in pain, and dropped the gun. Jeff stepped up to him, kicking it away and slamming the guy's head off the bar-top.

Britta circled around the bar and pointed her gun to where the bartender must have been crouching. "Where's the power source?"

"T-the what?" Annie could hear him stutter from behind the bar.

"That the panic buttons are connected to. Where is it?" Britta snarled at him.

The guy didn't answer, and Jeff came up behind Britta holding the map of all the fire exits. "It says it there," He told her, handing her the map while simultaneously shooting the bartender again.

Britta frowned at the map. "They make this so easy," She said, and headed off down another corridor to re-wire everything.

Jeff turned to Annie and nodded to a dark hall. "Let's move."

Annie walked in with Jeff following right behind her. Her heart was racing with anticipation with every step she took. They passed four identical red doors before coming to the one where Pelton held his private shows.

Jeff stood right beside Annie and gave her a nod. She nodded back and Jeff knocked down the door.

"Don't move!" He told two male dancers, dressed as dalmatians. One came at him but Jeff shot him quickly in the chest. Pelton, who had been sitting on a red chair watching the show, pulled out his gun quickly. Annie shot him in the hand just as Jeff had done earlier, and Jeff pointed his gun at the remaining dancer with a threatening look.

"I said _don't move," _He repeated. The dancer held up his hands up.

"Jeffrey," Pelton cooed, despite his bleeding hand that looked like it was now missing a finger. "What brings you here?"

Jeff didn't say anything. He nodded to Annie instead.

Annie took a breath to prepare herself, then stepped forward. "You know why we're here, Pelton," She said.

Pelton cocked his head at her with a smirk. "Oh aren't you cute?" He said. "I've heard all about you. Jeff Winger's psycho little pet." He smiled. "Please, call me Craig."

"I'm not a pet," Annie said, pointing the gun right at his face.

Pelton payed no attention to her. Instead he leaned to the side so that he could see Jeff. "You know, if I knew _this_ is what you were into, I would have tried it a long time ago," He teased.

"Shut up!" Annie exclaimed hitting him across the face with the gun.

Pelton was jerked to the side, but sat up again with ease. He circled his jaw a couple of times and spit out some blood. "My, you are annoying," He said.

"Oh, I'm so much more than that," Annie said quietly.

Pelton blinked at her, unfazed. "So what do you want?"

"You testified against a friend of ours. We're gonna need you to take back that testimony," Annie said.

Pelton scoffed. "Or what, you'll kill me?" He leaned to the side to speak to Jeff again. "Everyone knows about the power-struggle of Hawthorne mansion. If you kill me, you're screwed."

"Then I guess we're gonna have to do something worse, won't we?" Annie asked.

Pelton laughed. "Because some little rookie soldier is so threatening. Forget it, I'm not taking it back."

Annie lowered the gun that was still pointing at Pelton's face and put it back in the holster Abed had given her. She took out the knife from her boot and stepped closer, holding the knife up to Pelton's neck.

"You're not gonna kill me," He said confidently.

"No, I'm not," Annie agreed. She grabbed his collar and pulled him forward. She kneed him in the genitals causing him to jerk, and placed the tip of the knife to the bottom of his spine.

"Before I had a breakdown, I was gonna be a doctor, just like my dad," He whispered into Pelton's ear. She could feel him shivering against her in fear, and she loved every moment of it. "He taught me that there's a spot in your spine, that if damaged, could paralyze you from the waist down."

She moved the knife up, leaving a thin, shallow cut running up his back. She stopped just under his neck. "Or from the neck down," She continued.

She pulled the knife away and leaned back. Pelton let out a tiny sigh of relief.

"My dad wanted me to use that knowledge to become a respectable doctor, and not being any shame to our family name," She said. Pelton swallowed, seeing something in her eyes. "But I've already run the Edison name through the dirt and then some, so I guess it doesn't matter what I do with that knowledge now, does it?"

"No," Pelton said quietly.

Annie pressed the knife to his back again. Just the tip; sharp and cold.

"Please," Pelton whispered, looking her right in the eye. "I'll take back the testimony," He said.

"Of course you will," Annie told him, digging the knife in.

Pelton cried out and fell forward. Annie grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back, pressing him deeper into the blade. He whimpered and cried but she didn't stop.

"Don't worry, your arms still work," She said, pulling the knife out. He cried out again. "You can still use them to call the judge and take back your testimony, because if you don't, I'm coming back for the rest of you." She tapped his neck with the flat side of the knife and he flinched away.

She leaned back, smiling up at Jeff again.

He was looking hungrily at her. His pupils were blown with something Annie couldn't quite place. He gulped and tore his eyes away. He was so reluctant it almost seemed like he never wanted to stop looking at her.

He shot the remaining dancer, and Pelton cried out again at the sound of the gun firing.

Jeff shrugged. "It's a creepy fetish, Craig."

He placed his hand on the small of Annie's back and led her out of the room. It felt warm against her, and she felt the warmth flourish all the way through her. Her body was still buzzing, and twitchy, but not with rage anymore. It was something else. That same something in Jeff's eyes. She knew it.

Britta and Abed were already in the car when they returned.

"How'd it go?" Britta asked.

"Troy should be home any day now," Jeff said, avoiding Annie completely.

"How was Annie?" Abed asked, because he always knew the right questions to ask.

Jeff gulped again. His knuckles were white on the stirring wheel. Annie had done that to him.

She smirked with satisfaction and turned to face the window. "I was perfect," She told Abed confidently.

XXX

Jeff sat at his desk, knee bouncing excitedly in anticipation. Annie put a real scare into Pelton because he had taken back his testimony faster than Jeff knew was possible. The news of it had spread quickly, and if you asked the right people the news of why he'd taken it back wasn't hard to get to either. All of which meant Pierce had to know by now.

All that was left for Jeff to do was to sit through the quiet and wait for the storm. The problem was not knowing when the storm was coming. It made him feel anxious.

He considered getting some scotch while he waited, but he thought better of it. This wasn't going to be a pretty exchange. He'd be better off if he kept his wits about him, and he couldn't do that with any alcohol.

A knock came at his door, causing Jeff to sit up straight, and double-check that he had easy access to his gun.

"Come in," He called.

The door opened quietly and Annie slipped inside, closing it behind her. Jeff slumped in his seat with a mixture of relief and even more anxiety.

"You okay?" Annie asked, looking at him curiously.

"Yeah, just ..." Jeff waved a hand dismissively to finish the sentence.

Annie nodded.

"What's up?" Jeff asked, eyes flickering to the door before focusing on Annie properly.

Annie stepped forward, and sat on the seat in front of his desk. "I just wanted to thank you. For today. I really needed it."

Jeff shrugged. "Hey, we've all been there."

Annie nodded. "Yeah, I guess. But, you know, I probably would have ended up killing my dad or something if you hadn't given me the chance to take it out on Pelton."

Jeff didn't say anything, sensing there was more she wanted to add.

"It's weird. Wanting to kill someone so badly, without even thinking about it," She admitted.

"Better to let it out than to keep it bottled in," Jeff said, because it was true. He's had to clean up plenty of messes from people who held onto their rage. Mainly Pierce.

"No, I know," Annie said. "It's not that I'm ashamed of it or anything. It's just … when I was nine years old I wanted to be a doctor. And now, I'm here doing things I couldn't have ever imagined and … I love it more than anything."

"That's what you came here to tell me?"

Annie smiled softly. "I came here to tell you I'm glad you gave me a chance. I mean, I could have ended up being a _doctor._"

"I think Greendale should thank me for the fact that you're not, all things considered." Jeff smirked.

Annie laughed. "Yeah."

Jeff assumed that was it, but Annie stayed put, and watched him with an odd expression.

"Anything else?"

Annie bit her lip nervously. Jeff tried not to think about how pink it looked. "Yes, actually, there is something else." She leaned forward, and tilted her head slightly, the same way Abed did when he was about to subtly interrogate Jeff. "What were you thinking today, when I was paralyzing Pelton?"

Jeff raised his eyebrows, caught off-guard. "What?" He said, though he'd understood her perfectly. The problem was that he had been thinking about her. About the dark look in her eyes. About how he really, really wanted to touch her.

Annie repeated the question. Jeff gulped.

"Nothing," He winced. His voice sounded ridiculous and choked. God dammit. What was he, fifteen?

"Didn't seem like nothing," Annie said. He could see the determination behind her eyes.

"Yeah? And what _did_ it seem like?" Jeff asked. He knew he was playing with fire here, but he couldn't help himself. He was slowly growing used to the fact that he could never help himself when it came to Annie.

"Oh, you know," Annie said innocently. She got up from her seat, and walked around the desk, fingers dancing on the edge of the wood. "You had that look on your face. The _Annie is awesome_ look."

"I wasn't aware I had a _Annie is awesome_ look."

"You wear it a lot," Annie told him, only slightly smug.

"Logically, that's your fault," Jeff told her.

"What were you thinking, Jeff?" She asked again. Her voice was soft. Her feet were right in front of his, if he stood up, they'd be inches apart.

Jeff's heart was beating wildly in his chest. For brief moment he thought about all the ways this was a bad idea. For starters, he was a mess of a human being. And if Laybourne ever heard about it, there's no doubt that Annie would be number one on his revenge hit-list. That is, if she wasn't already, after today. And she was young, and relatively new, and …

And she was smiling at him with that dark look on her face.

"Well?" She prompted.

_Screw it,_ Jeff thought. If there was a hell, he already had reserved seats.

He stood up slowly, stepping in close to her. Personal space was practically non-existent at this point. Annie's eyes were wide, and bright, looking up at him.

"I was thinking of doing this," He said, and leaned in to kiss her. From the second their lips met, everything they had been holding back was finally let loose. Annie's hands gripped his collar tightly, and she pressed herself into Jeff. Jeff ignored the fact that his suit was going to be totally creased because _holy crap._

He wrapped his arms around her, and swung them both around so that Annie was leaning against his desk. The kiss became rougher and messier. Months of waiting, of longing, finally paying off. It was so much more fantastic than he'd imagined. And, oh boy, he _had_ imagined. A lot.

Annie pushed herself up so she was sitting on his desk, and wrapped her legs around him. Jeff's brain was about two minutes away from short-circuiting. He licked into her mouth. She tasted sweet. Jeff thought that was so typical of her while also being completely unexpected. This girl, _god damn it._

Annie leaned back on the desk, pulling him down with her. Her hands started to slide his suit-jacket off him, followed by his holster. He trailed kisses down her jaw and her neck, because they were both in desperate need of some breathing time. Annie let out a quiet groan that Jeff decided was his favourite sound in the universe. Once the holster was off, he brought his hands back to grip her waist. His fingers flirted with the hem of her shirt, brushing lightly at the warm skin under it.

This was insane. All he could focus on was her, and her smell, and her skin.

And then a stomping noise outside startled him out of it. Jeff stopped and pulled away, listening carefully.

"What's wrong?" Annie asked.

And then he heard it again. Footsteps coming upstairs. Pierce's footsteps.

"Crap," He muttered, pulling himself away from Annie, just in time for Pierce to kick the door open and focus his glare on him.

"Jeffrey," Pierce said, on the brink of rage. "We need to have a little talk."


End file.
